D35 Versoix

The D35 fleet was racing this past weekend on Lake Geneva. The three day event consisted of windward-leeward buoy racing on Friday and Sunday with the classic “long distance” race Geneve-Rolle-Geneve on Saturday.

As usual, the winds were pretty light for the most part all weekend. The Artemis team tied for 4th place over the weekend and we are now in 4th place for the season. The “Kids” on Realstone dominated the weekend winning the buoy racing, as well as the distance race.

280 boats participated in the Geneve-Rolle-Geneve. The starting line is about 2 miles long and divided into three parts. The multihulls, of which there are several classes amounting to about 50 boats, start on their own line. As last year, the going was quite light in the early part of the race up to Rolle. In fact, the wind was so light that up at Rolle, we drifted into the mark and had to make a penalty turn. On the return, a squall arrived and suddenly the boats were making 20 knots. The 32 mile race took about 5 hours and Artemis finished 6th.

Yesterday, the racing was delayed one hour and we finally got underway around 1230 in four knots of wind. Artemis Racing, with Torbjorn Tornqvist at the the helm, finished third in the one and only race of the day in as the wind dropped to two knots at the finish.

Next for the D35s is the Bol d’ Or next Saturday, 16 June. This is the big event on Lake Geneva and about 400 boats participate in the 90 mile circumnavigation of the Lake.

Paul