Decision time

Anne Hinton looks at what's in store this year for the 35ft Swiss lake catamarans

Décision boatbuilders have been in existence since 1984, when they were based at Morges, in the central part of Lake Geneva. Since July 2000 they have been at their present base in Fénil, right next door to one of the Serono plants of Ernesto Bertarelli. Perhaps no surprise then that they have built many boats for Bertarelli: his 40ft catamaran (which is currently in storage in premises nearby awaiting a new owner) and all his America’s Cup boats, as well as the new Décision 35 one design catamarans, which first took to the waters of Lake Geneva last year. Previous work (in the yard at Morges) included Whitbread maxis such as Merit Cup, for which tents were used as an extension to the indoor work space, given the size of the boat in relation to the old yard buildings.

There is plenty of room for an America’s Cup boat to be built inside at the premises in Fénil, and the ‘oven’ is easily capable of taking that size of boat too. Indeed the yard modified SUI 75 to comply with Version 5 of the America’s Cup class rules over a three month period, alongside other work, this past winter. For the modifications to SUI 64, Décision sent a team to Valencia to work on site. Décision will build the new America’s Cup boats for Alinghi, commencing this winter. The main work over the last winter has, however, been for Swisscom. No, not a sailing project, but special antenna covers to protect the telecom equipment from the weather while allowing normal transmission of signals (water, in all its forms, can be a major problem for telco signals) from mountain tops around Switzerland.

During my visit, there was something under construction for Alinghi, but the main work was outside preparing three of the Décision 35 catamarans for the new season. SUI 8 over-wintered down the lake and has already been air-lifted into the water in Versoix. Numbers SUI 1, 2 and 3 (SUI 1 is Alinghi) were stored at the Décsion yard during the winter and were being checked over and rigged for the helicopter air-lift into the water. The other four Décision 35s over-wintered near Geneva and have a less dramatic trolley launch and retrieval system, substantially reducing the costs of getting the boats water-borne over the helicopter method.



The delamination area on a part of the hull of Bédat, after the hull was forced several metres under water during a capsize, has been repaired. It was not found to be a general structural issue for the boats. Work on the boats since they were first put in the water last year has included reinforcement of all the masts during the season last year and a change to PBO from Kevlar for the outer shrouds over the winter this year. The result should be stiffer masts and hopefully fewer breakages this year (SUI 2 had two mast breakages and SUI 4 one last year). The boats also have a slightly increased sail area for the 2005 season with both the Code 0 and gennaker enlarged. This change is designed to improve efficiency and sheeting angles.

Each year to keep costs down and control the one design, the boats are only allowed three new sails. Therefore the two enlarged foresails are taking up quite a large part of this allowance! However, as Etienne David, series champion last year, pointed out “the mainsail is well battened and therefore quite stiff and doesn’t need to be replaced after one season”. So one can expect to see the third new sail on the front end of each boat.

So, are there new boats for the new season? And who will be sailing the boats this year?

New boats: no, not at present. Builder Bertrand Cardis had interest from some potential new owners at the end of the last season. However, the owner of Team Red, which had the series champion (SUI 5) and runner-up (SUI 7) last year, Frederic Amar, decided to sell SUI 7 and is in negotiations over the sale of SUI 5. This has meant that two boats with an excellent track record were up for grabs, and consequently had the effect of reducing the demand for new boats. However there is still interest from potential owners and, provided these make a decision over the summer before the work on the new America’s Cup boat for Alinghi gets under way, there might be a chance of a couple more boats for 2006.

What about the riders this year? Putting SUI 7, and later also SUI 5, up for sale, left series champion Etienne David without a mount. However, as David put it “I wasn’t lucky in love”. The compensation was that someone came along who found the people to put up the money to buy SUI 7 for David and put his name as owner on the paperwork. David wanted SUI 7 in preference to SUI 5, as the boat had less sailing than SUI 5 last year, so the sails are less used. David still needs a sponsor to cover the costs of running the boat. His crew is not yet finalised, as can be said for all the boats. However, it is likely that Loïc Führer, who was with Alinghi for the 2000 Cup and is currently working for Europ sails (those on SUI 5 and SUI 7 last year) will again be part of the team. Jean-Marc Monnard, the main man at Europ Sails will be sailing on the Melges circuit this year, so his Décision 35 sailing time will be more limited.

French 60ft trimaran ace Loïck Peyron was the helmsman of SUI 7 last year. This year Peyron will be at the helm of SUI 2, the former Bédat, which can perhaps be described as the most hapless of the boats last year, suffering two mast breakages and a small area of hull delamination. In spite of sailing with a reef in at the end of the season, to reduce the chance of a capsize and the hull with the delamination going under water again, she was still up with the other boats, and definitely not at the back of the fleet. Bédat has withdrawn, but a new sponsor is likely to announced for the boat next week. Owner, Nicolas Grange, has renamed her Okalys; the name of his boats prior to his sponsorship from Bédat.

As to SUI 5, series champion boat in 2004, Series Master, Bertrand Favre, says: “Alain Gautier is in the process of buying SUI 5”. The former Foncia skipper's interest reflects the curiosity of the French multihull sailors about the Décision 35 cats. Both he and Peyron raced Formula 40 catamarans in the 1980s. Negotiations are in progress for sponsorship but, according to Favre, no announcements are expected on this front for some time.

The Alinghi team (SUI 1) finished third in the series last year. There will be some changes to her team as Pierre-Yves Jorand (her helmsman, in Bertarelli’s absence, for most of the last season) is Valencia-based this year. Nils Frei is also tied up with his duties to Alinghi in Spain. More local lake sailors are expected on the boat.

SUI 3, Ferrier Lullin, will still be sailed by Philippe Cardis, brother of the boat’s builder, with some small changes, such as her sub-sponsors. Bertrand Cardis was seen at the helm of SUI 4 Zen Too last year, but has less time for sailing this year, so there will be some changes to the personnel on board this boat. SUI 6, Chopard-Cadence, and SUI 8 Banque Gonët are understood to have some changes as well. The memorial regatta for Claude Isaac, who coached the Gonët team until he passed away in the middle of last summer, is to be held again, as part of the Challenge Ferrier Lullin series, this year.

At present many teams have no coaches lined up. Gonët has a coach from the Gitana trimaran sailing team. Two of the other boats have pulled in a coach from the Olympic sailing team and will train together. As yet, series champion from 2004, Etienne David, does not have a coach.

For the jury, there will always be at least one international judge on the water. This is likely to be someone from France on most occasions. The idea is to work alongside the Swiss judges as there still aren’t many international sailing judges in Switzerland.

This year the Decision 35 programme is similar to 2004, although the practice event at the end of April forms part of the series this year. There is, once again, additional weighting (x1.5) to the Grand Prix events - that of Chopard at the end of May, and Beau Rivage in September. The Décisions also have a class entry (not part of the Challenge series) in ‘La Double’, a long-distance, double-handed race from Versoix. Beyond this there is talk of taking the boats over to Cascais in Portugal.

Taking the boats to Portugal would be a very expensive and time-consuming process. Each has to be de-rigged and then goes into a 40 foot container, is transported, and has to be re-rigged at the other end. Due to this, any event in Cascais would have to be in October, after the Challenge series programme. Furthermore, the boats were designed for lake sailing and not the rigours of the waves and swell of the Atlantic Ocean.

Builder Bertrand Cardis felt that the boats could be sailed in up to 15-20 knots of breeze in these conditions. David, however, expressed concerns about sailing them in large waves, eg 2 metres or more, and pointed out that the boats had been designed for the conditions on Lake Geneva. Large waves (I have personal experience of 10 m ones there), and oceanic swell, are a feature of the conditions at Cascais. Whereas the idea sounds nice in principal, whether it would work in practice (eg it could happen that the boats were transported all the way to Portugal and then could not be sailed due to the conditions) remains to be seen. Bertrand Favre has given the Portuguese until the end of April to come up with sponsorship for the costs of transportation, etc, to cover an event for the Décision 35s out of Cascais.

For following the programme on the lake, a Virtual Spectator-like system was planned for showing the boats’ locations at all times last year but, apparently due to technical hitches, did not get going. This has been further developed over the winter and is hoped to be operational for the 2005 programme, so there is a chance that one might be able to follow this exciting circuit live over the internet.

Calendar

Open des Multicoques - 30 April - 1 May
Grand Prix Chopard - 28-29 May
Genève-Rolle-Genève 4 June
Bol d’Or Rolex - 11 June
TransMajestic - 25 June
Joran / Mémorial Claude Isaac - 13 August
Open et ProAm La Réserve Genève 27-28 August
Open de Versoix 11 September
La Double 17 September
Grand Prix Beau-Rivage Palace 23-25 September