Bertarelli wins Bol d'Or

Alinghi boss returns to two hulls. Thierry Martinez was there camera in hand. We speak to British competitor Jo Richards

Alinghi boss Ernesto Bertarelli on Saturday evening became winner of Switzerland's largest sailing event, the Bol d'Or for the fourth consecutive time.

The giant fleet of more than 500 boats set sail from three separate start lines off Geneva at 0920 local time on Saturday. "The slow boat end of the line was very favoured," commented Jo Richards, steering the only British boat to be taking part, Stephen Fein's Full Pelt-Slam. "There was wind at that end, but no wind at our end at all, so we spent the first 15 mile picking our way through slower boats who’d got away."

The course for the Bol d'Or takes the boats eastwards along the inverted banana shape of Lake Leman to a turning mark off Bouveret, where the Rhone feeds the lake. The boats then return to Geneva. The race is notoriously light airs and equally well know for a occasional intense squalls that create havoc within the fleet.

The boats experienced a light air beat out of the Petit Lac up the lake to Lausanne but late in the afternoon one such squall struck the fleet with devasting consequences.

"We got intercepted by a very large thunder storm with completely torrential rain and 40 knots," commented Richards who at the time was about 1.5 miles away from the turning mark. "So we were broaching out going downhill in Full Pelt with just the main up - and it’s a pretty controllable boat."

As they were being driven on to a leeshore by 40 knot winds, during this time Club 58 and Bedat & Co, two of the four top catamaran contenders for the race, capsized and more than 100 boats retired. Fortunately for Bertarelli, Alinghi had rounded the turning mark some time previously and was well on the way back to the finish line

Alinghi crossed the finish line at 1907 local time to take first place by a considerable margin - more than an hour - over Red (formerly Happycalopse) of Alinghi boatbuilder Bertrand Cardis. Bertarelli had taken a course closer to the French (southerly) shore of Lake Leman.

"We went round and we had quite a reasonable run back down to the Petit Lac in 18-20 knots - we were doing 10-12 knots at which point the wind clapped out again and became a very light air sniddle back," continued Richards of their progress back to Geneva.

Full Pelt were fourth monohull to finish behind a couple of the new swing keel, water ballasted, trapeze 40 footers designed by Sebastien Schmidt, with whom Richards designed Bertarelli's Alinghi catamaran.

Richards says that Alinghi has just become more and more refined over the years. "There’s new odd little bits of rigging and new lighter spreaders. They’ve saved weight here and there and it is in immaculate condition and they know the boat pretty well now. It would be very difficult for anyone to beat in the future - except for the fact that you are racing on the lake."

Bertarelli's Alinghi catamaran has been written about elsewhere over the years, but for those who don't know about it, Alinghi is the built to the maximum allowed under lake rules. The basic platform is 12.5m (just over 40ft) long and she is allowed to carry a bowsprit of 4.5m and a bumpkin of 3m. The bumpkin is a pole extending from the stern of the boat allowing gennikers of humungous proportions to be flown from the 26m tall mast.

"Because of the way we did the spreaders you can overlap the jibs, so it has 285sqm of upwind sail area. That is the same as Oracle had in the first round of the America Cup’s with on a boat which weighs 1300kg - 150kg less than an Etchells!" says Richards.



A familiar sight - as Ernesto Bertarelli cracks another bottle of bubbly

More of Thierry Martinez's top photos of the action can be seen on the subsequent pages (use the navigation buttons at the bottom of each page to access them)

Top 50 results

Pos	Boat name	Sail no	Skipper	Time
1	ALINGHI	SUI2000	BERTARELLI	09:56:53	E
2	RED	SUI666	CARDIS	11:00:27	E
3	CADENCE	SUI28	DEMOLE	12:46:46	F
4	ZEN	SUI27	DE PICCIOTTO	12:48:36	F
5	RAIFFEISEN DU V.	SUI27	BRV/TBS/CLIMAX	12:58:52	F
6	LA RISEE D'ANIERES	SUI1	STITELMANN	14:06:02	F
7	TAILLEVENT II	SUI1	ENGEL	14:38:32	1
8	SYZ & CO	SUI100	PSAROFAGIS	14:42:07	1
9	TILT	SUI200	SCHNEITER/FIRM.	14:48:17	1
10	MARSEILLE 2	ITA2001	STEFANINNI	15:30:43	L
11	LAC & MER	Z1	BERTHOLET	16:36:42	F
12	FULL PELT / SLAM	GBR9636	RICHARDS	16:38:54	1
13	RELANCE	SUI1	DESPLANDS	16:49:46	1
14	BODY & SOUL	SUI22	STAMPLI	16:50:43	2
15	ALBATROS	SUI1	RYTER	16:52:07	1
16	METEORITE-HP CONSULT	SUI17701	PARIDANT	16:52:57	2
17	CORNALINE	SUI1	DELLA CASA	16:53:50	2
18	ANTHICAT	F33	CURSCHELLAS	16:54:23	F
19	ALLIANCE	SUI108	NAÏMI	16:54:34	1
20	CARPEDIEM BIS	SUI82	MUNIER	16:56:59	2
21	REBCA	SUI1	ZIMMERLI	16:58:40	S
22	KICKASS'O	EUR91	SYFRIG	17:00:13	2
23	TRIGA 5	SUI301	PECLARD	17:00:52	4
24	ENAILE	SUI80	TOURNIER	17:00:54	2
25	BELOTTI	SUI1012	FERT	17:02:29	2
26	OLYMPIC	SUI304	DEBIASE	17:02:49	4
27	HENRI LLOYD	135	SCHENK	17:02:55	2
28	ATALANTE	SUI54	NAVILLE	17:03:22	S
29	50E HURLANTS	SUI27	PICTET	17:04:51	2
30	TARANGAU	SUI952	VULLIEZ	17:05:39	3
31	DECOUVERTES	SUI77	HERMINJARD	17:06:20	2
32	VOIE7.CH	SUI87	AMREIN	17:06:36	S
33	SAMOUI IV	SUI63	GIRARDET	17:07:17	2
34	OPUS 4 IMMOGENEVE.CH	SUI4	RACLOZ	17:08:54	2
35	BELZEBUTH	SUI53	MOERCH	17:09:55	S
36	ARIANE X	SUI85	SCHOPFER	17:10:27	2
37	SIX ET MOI	FRA6	VAN LEEUWEN	17:11:00	2
38	COMPLICE	FRA36	MAGNIN	17:11:21	4
39	L'Y	SUI56	MEYER	17:11:49	2
40	PROVIDENTIA	SUI50	DORAND	17:12:44	4
41	FLASH	SUI2000	GAY	17:13:10	2
42	ANANDA	FRA42	DONNA	17:13:49	3
43	TAKATA	SUI29	JUTZI	17:14:39	4
44	MOITIE-MOITIE	SUI58	PATRY	17:15:23	S
45	L'AFFABLE	SUI74	WASSMER	17:16:17	S
46	CANCUN	SUI52	MOULY	17:17:17	2
47	JAMBON-BEURRE	SUI2	FOETH	17:17:25	2
48	BON PERE	SUI3	MEYER	17:19:43	2
49	QUATUOR	SUI61	OESCH	17:20:12	2
50	TOPAZE	SUI1	RUMMEL	17:21:22	S