Geneva

Over 300 boats were on the starting line off the Societe Nautique de Geneve at 1000 yesterday for the 74th running of the Bol d’Or. It was a sunny day with Mont Blanc clearly visible, but there was little wind for the start. Artemis Racing was participating again this year with Torbjorn Tornqvist at the helm.

We were literally drifting at the start, but fortunately the fleet was divided over three starting lines.

The breeze was light all the way up to the East end of the lake making the 42 nautical mile journey take over seven hours for the fastest boats…the D35s and the M2s catamarans. The stops and starts are too numerous to recall. The lead changed countless times as boats 100 meters apart often had wind from the opposite direction.

Our route East took us past Versoix, Rolle, Nyon, Lausanne, Evian and Montreux to La Bouveret. The green hills rolling down to the lake with snow capped mountains in the background provide a dramatic setting for sure. But it was slow going, at times we were just drifting wondering which mountain the next breath of air would descend from.

Artemis rounded the half way point at 1745, last of the D35s. Immediately after turning the “barge” at Le Bouveret, we made a B-line for the Northern shore along with Alinghi and Lady Cat. We managed to pass two boats with that move although it seemed like we might have gotten more out of it initially as the fleet in the middle of the lake was parked as we reached along at 15 knots.

As we headed west toward the finish in Geneva, we met the Southwesterly breeze which had been in place all day in the “Petit Lac”. That is the Western third of the lake. So, as things settled down with the wind, the fleet made good progress and not much changed in the positions.

At the finish, the kids on Realstone edged out a well sailed Julius Bar by just seven minutes, for the win. Zen completed the podium. Artemis Racing finished at 22:05 in 7th place, bettering last years position by three places. It was a long day! As Torbjorn said at the finish, we found a few more of the bad spots on the track. It seems that winning a Bol d’Or might be a project that takes time as experience on the many twists and turns of the lake counts!

Back to VLC right now. Wishing all fathers a great day of being pampered by your family!

Paul

Geneva

Today was the final day of a great weekend of racing on Lake Geneva. We sailed four great races to go with the previous ten, for a total of 14 races. The winds today were again in the 10-12 knot range with gusts to 16 at times.

Artemis Racing had a pretty good day with scores of 5,2,5,6 and held our third place overall. We were pretty pleased with that result considering we did very little training as a complete crew prior to the regatta.

Alinghi and Realstone (‘the kids’) tied for first place overall, but Alinghi won the tie breaker due to having more first place finishes. Alinghi won the last two races of the weekend, while the kids finished 7, 3 and thus closed the gap and forced the tie. Realstone is known as “the kids” as the crew are all about 23 years old or younger and they train a lot. They trained for two months in the D35 prior to this weekend and it showed. Very smooth on boat handling and they know the lake pretty well.

We were just two points ahead of Lady Cat this morning so we were happy to extend that gap to eight points by the end of the weekend.

The Southwesterly wind was shifty as always and in the last race there were some very large “holes” of no wind. There was so much passing and being passed that I can’t possibly recount it all. Suffice to say that it was never over until you crossed the finish line and often boats made big comebacks after being last after the first lap.

I want to thank Yvan, Frank, Gilles, Sarah, Noel and Maxime for a great job this weekend! 14 races is a lot and the wind was up so the crew work load was high and everyone put in 110%. Catamarans are fast and fun but also a lot of work. Sailing a D35 with six gives one a good appreciation for the AC45 which is sailed with just 5 crew and the AC72 with its 40 meter wing which will be sailed with just 11.

The next event for the D35s is Le Grand Prix de Crans in three weeks time. Before that, we have the AC45 World Series event in Venice in 10 days.

I am back to Valencia tonight to the Artemis Racing base of operations.

For complete D35 results go to www.vulcaintrophy.com

Paul

Today was the beginning of another season in the D35 Class here on Lake Geneva. This first regatta, Grand Prix Les Ambassadeurs, is part of a series of regattas called “The Vulcain Trophy”, which includes the Bol d’Or in June. Artemis finished 4th last season and we were excited to get back out there this morning.

Six races were planned for the fleet of nine boats sailing out of the Societe Nautique de Geneve today. We had clear blue skies this morning and the wind filled in around noon. Racing got under way at 1230. We had a very mediocre day onboard Artemis during the first 3 races, with scores of 8th, 4th and 6th, in the 6-8 knot breeze from the Northeast. Nothing in particular happened but a lot of little things did not go well. Probably a little “rust” from not having sailed competitively in the boat for six months.

Then there was a long pause while the wind shifted 180 degrees and filled in at 20 knots with gusts to 22 knots and lulls to 9 knots. As the wind was coming off the city, it was very puffy and shifty. The sailing was very exciting and the boats were traveling at high speeds in the conditions. We’d had a decent third race in the 4th race of the day were sailing upwind on starboard tack and we were on a collision course with Zen who was on port tack. They tried to slow down to get behind us and miss judged it. The result was a violent crash into our port side. The hull is ok but the port “rack” is destroyed. We had to withdraw from further racing for the day. One of our crew members was thrown into the water from the impact and we narrowly avoided a pitch pole (capsizing by putting the bow under (a cartwheel) as Zen spun us away from the wind.

Anyway, we got the boat back to the dock at the SNG and are in the midst of a repair so we can compete again tomorrow.

For complete results visit www.vulcaintrophy.com

Paul

Antibes

No wind, no racing. Went for a nice run this morning and going to have dinner with my cousins in Mougins tonight.

Hoping for wind tomorrow.

Paul

Geneva,

It was a pretty fast race this year as a strong south westerly breeze pushed the fastest boats, the D35’s down to the east end of the lake in 2,5 hours, right on record time. However the way back was slower as the wind died in a few spots.

Over 500 boats started this classic lake geneva race on four different staring lines.

Alinghi led the D35 class early and won the race while being challenged by Foncia most of the way. There was a bit of shuffling but not huge parking lots.

On board Artemis Racing we did not do well at all, beating just one boat in our class. We did not sail particularly fast nor the right way in a few key moments.

At the east end of the lake the wind came up to 22 knots and the waves were about 1 meter. That is a difficult sea way in these light air machines. We dug the bow in pretty hard a couple of times.

Now there is a summer break for the D35 racing and the last two regattas of the season will be in the south of France, the first one the first weekend of September.

For complete results go to www.Vulcaintrophy.com

Paul