Nearly 600 of them set out yesterday morning in tight rows against the local Easterly ‘Séchar’ wind. Just a handful of them had rounded Le Bouveret, at the far end of Lac Léman, by the start of the afternoon, and even fewer - heroic souls nonetheless - had made port by yesterday evening. These were the escapees of a Bol d’Or Rolex that, true to form, was hard on the sailors, gruelling for the nerves and tough on equipment.

At dawn, the fleet spans the entire width of the race zone. Solent sails flog, colourful spinnakers inflate and then deflate as if exhausted by so many nocturnal veins of breeze. In a race full of unpredictability, courage and patience are the prerequisite of the Bol D’or Rolex. Alex Schneiter and Patrick Firmenich, are the first to slide their red Psaros 40, almost surreptitiously, across the finish line shortly after 0100 this morning to take victory in Class 1. It is the beginning of a vast procession of hundreds of fine, individual tales that are both personal and secret, of sailors that have come like swallows to the spring to answer the call of the Léman.

The Bol de Vermeil goes to ‘Tilt’
For almost the entire race, Alex Schneiter and Patrick Firmenich aboard the Psaros 40 ‘Tilt’ believed that Taillevent II - Nicolas Engel’s prototype which had been right on their tail since Bouveret - was going to catch them. Their greatest fear in the darkest of calm zones was to see the famous Bol de Vermeil snatched from them, a prize promised to any boat capable of lining up three class victories over a five-year period. The satisfaction of having won it, after such tense racing, lit up the faces of Schneiter’s crew as the Race Committee sounded the finish gun at 0104 hours. ‘Tilt’ had a lead of just 12 minutes over Taillevent II, a prototype designed and built like an old style ‘Class America Mini’, though the anemometer was barely scraping zero.

“It’s been a testing race” says Alex with a smile that seems to suggests otherwise. “Especially at the finish where we feared we’d be run over by a gust right up until the last minute.” It’s not easy reading the lake surface in the pitch black, with not a single breath of wind. “This Bol d’Or Rolex is exceptional, not only because we won it, but also because we’ve had all kinds of conditions, complete with a violent squall with 27 knots of wind. It was a complete race that was all about strategy.” Firmenich takes up the theme: “It was a fabulous ‘Bol d’Or Rolex! We could have lost everything just a few boat lengths from the line. You couldn’t afford to mess up the final manouvres, or risk stopping a boat that was only moving as a result of its own inertia. It was very tense at the end. Thank you to the crew.” Behind the first two, ‘Full Pelt’, a highly original prototype with a planing hull and a swing keel, designed by British naval architect and Olympic medallist Jo Richards, completes the Class 1 podium.

Storm and Some Hope
This 68th Bol d’Or Rolex will remain etched in the memory, not least for the big storm that struck mid-afternoon, while the whole fleet was stretched three-quarters of the way across the lake. It swept down across the race zone, causing a good 20 or so retirements and a great deal of emotion from the racers, some of whom saw the anemometer record winds over 35 knots. For the 400 or so boats still racing to Bouveret, this gust brought hope of a having a more wind-assisted push towards the finish. Sadly for them, the storm only left a vague chop in its wake and that quickly subsided with the crushing apathy of a race zone utterly devoid of wind.

The Toucans triumph in Class 3
The close battle between the Luthis and the Toucans finally went to the latter. ‘Enaile’ skippered by Yves Tournier took victory at 2117 hours after a bitter struggle, the winner finishing a mere breath of air ahead of another Toucan, Luc Munier’s ‘Aquatic’. The Luthi 952 ‘Tarangau Electronic Marine’ skippered by David Vulliez broke the Toucan monopoly to complete the podium.

Festival of sports boats
The Mumm 30s were led home by the crew of ‘Ville de Genève-Carrefour Prévention’ who will defend the Swiss colours at the upcoming Tour Voile, which starts in Dunkirk at the end of June. Skipper Loïc Fuhrer worked hard over the winter with his crew and today he reaped the rewards of that effort by taking victory in Class 4 over another Mumm 30, that of the Frenchman Patrick Ducommun. The Farr designs managed to outwit the imposing fleet of Grand Surprises.

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