Master of the lake

A competitor in the event since 1989, Jo Richards discusses the Bol d'Or Rolex

Jo Richards and Stephen Fein have become two of the most capped non-Swiss sailors in the annual Bol d'Or Rolex lap of Lake Geneva, now entering it's 66th year (Interestingly the event is probably the only yacht race in Europe to have been held for the first time in 1939 despite the outbreak of World War 2.)

In the 1980s Fein and Richards made an earnest attempt to take on the dominant French in the Formula 40 class and since then they have been captivated by developing new ever faster boats totally free from any notion of handicap compliance. Like most Formula 40s their Full Pelt trimaran ended up on the Swiss lakes where to tailor it to the light wind conditions it was fitted with a 90ft tall wingmast, plucked from the defunct Blue Arrow America's Cup challenger. The sailing scene on the Swiss lakes for the last few years have been a hotbed of development and innovation in both monohulls and multihulls and this suits Fein and Richards approach to the sport.

"It is a fascinating race as much as anything else because they have real racing boats up here," says Richards. "They don’t confuse it with having cruising boat because there is no where particularly to go cruising." With many other like-minded sailor/innovators on the lakes they simply fit in here better than anywhere else.

Richards and Fein first competed in the Bol d'Or in 1989 and have competed in most of them since, in their assorted trimaran, catamaran or monohulls. This will be the first occasion they have sailed the latest Full Pelt in the Bol d'Or.

The boat's debut was to have been made at last year's event but they were prevented from making the start due to issues with the hydraulics for their canting keel. "I have taken charge of them myself," says Richards. "We have got a fairly comprehensive box of spares..." He says they have now tested the hydraulics in anger and otherwise over the winter they have been changing a lot of little things such as moving the dead end of the runners further inboard.

In terms of competition for tomorrow's Bol d'Or Rolex Full Pelt's prime competition will be from the extreme Psaros 40s ( click here to read more about these) - 40ft long, weighing 2.8 tonnes but in particular with a swing keel, water ballast and six trapexes. "They are good little boat," says Richards, ultimate praise for the boat designed by Sebastien Schmidt with whom he created Ernesto Bertarelli's previous Alinghi catamaran.

But there are others to look out for...."One of the old Libera class boats is getting more and more raced up," says Richards. "It's called French Connection and she gives the multihulls a run for their money in the light."

Then there is their own old 28 footer, now rechristened Full Speed after it was sold to the Gasparini brothers, one of whom (Philippe) sailed the 49er for the French at the Sydney Olympics. The boat has gone to a good home and it is well sailed. "We’re quite pleased," continues Richards. "Last weekend it was a downwind start and it took us an hour to do the first 17 miles as the crow flies and we took out 12 minutes from the old boat, so 20% quicker downhill. And they have six trapezes on it now and an extra metre on the rig. So that was very pleasing from my point of view as you are always slightly nervous that you are going to get beaten by the old boat… We still might."

So what of the Bol d'Or course? Lake Geneva is roughly banana-shaped with the start off Geneva at the western end. The boat sail up the length of the lake to a turning mark off Bouveret at the opposite extremity of the lake, before returning to Geneva. The distance for the course is roughly 70km each way, roughly the distance of sailing from Cowes to Weymouth and back.

"We start about 100 yards up from the club," says Richards. "It is one start, the line goes right the way across the lake and is split into three sectors. The closest to the club shore are the smallest monohulls, the bigger monohulls in the middle and the multihull on the other side. You sail down the Petite Lac which is about 12 miles long and the lake itself is very banana shaped, it broadens out at the end of the Petite Lac and there is always the temptation to go straight for the corner at Evian because if you can lay where you want to go, that’s what you do...if you sail in England. That is generally speaking the wrong thing to do here. It often pays to go right around the north shore depending upon the breeze. And the top mark is up by where the Rhone comes into the Lac, on the French side at Bouveret, round a barge there and back again. The barge is about 270m off the shore."

Seems simple enough, except that the winds on the lake tend to be light and there can be enormous wind hole. "Normal conditions are thermal sailing, if it is settled weather you generally start with a light beat and that will turn into a reach and a run at the top and a beat back again. In normal thermal conditions you often get thunderstorms in the early evening or in the middle of the night. Normally we try to get back by 10pm because that’s when the food changes at the club from being a decent to being a sailor’s overnight menu. The time limit is 4pm on Sunday.

"There have been races where the leading multihull has been 19 hours," continues Richards. "The quickest we’d expect to get around is 6.5 hours. And generally it is a 9am start and if we can do it in 12 it will be a reasonable race."

Over the length of the lake the wind blows from all manner of directions and with the Alps surrounding the lake's eastern and southern side, it can be exceptional gusty.

"Yesterday it was the Bise which [wind] comes down from Neuchatel, Zurich area. It was blowing 40 knots and 35 knot the day before. As it goes further down the Rhone valley you call it the Mistral. It is the same wind - cold air descending from northern Europe. It comes into the top of the lake as Lausanne (the northernmost corner of the lake) and spreads out in both directions. The Bis is the Mistral pre-cursor from the north. Then there are a lot of other local breezes. The normal afternoon one is the Secard on the Petite Lac. Then there is the Juron (a wind which comes down from the Jura mountains to the north of Lake Geneva).

"You are mainly working your way from one sea breeze to another as one mountainside warms up and another one cools down. It is a classic situation where in the early evening you want to get back on to the north side of the lake as the Jura goes into shadow and you get a northerly dropping off that at Morges and on the south side of the lake the evening sun is still on the hill side so it is sucking it up. It changes during the course of the day. It is not just one sea breeze. It is half a dozen sea breezes working against each other. Sometimes you just have to be patient and say ‘this sea breeze is going to stop’ we know where the next one is going to come from and you just position yourself and be patient, which is not something English sailors are used to."

With a new boat and 16 years accumulated knowledge it will be interesting to see how Stephen Fein, Richards and the Full Pelt squad get on tomorrow.