Genève

A rare result - and one not to be repeated

2 September, 2018

In victory, as in defeat, it's important to keep a sense of perspective and to have an honest appraisal of one's performance. It is in that spirit that the team's result in the l'Open du Yacht Club must be viewed. The regatta, which marked the resumption of the second half of the D35 Season, saw Alinghi finish 9th out of 9 after the four races run, with a strong wind having deprived the fleet of the remaining races in the regatta. Without seeking excuses, here are some explanations: Ernesto Bertarelli, skipper: "Following Nils's injury last week in Cardiff, we had to reshape our D35 crew. Arnaud went from the mainsail to the foresail to replace Nils, and Pierre-Yves joined us to trim the mainsail. With two changes of position among a crew of six there's inevitably a period of adaptation required, not least for team communications to be refined. That's all-the-more impactful when you have windy conditions as we had in this Grand Prix. We made mistakes which we'd not normally make and with a fleet this compact and competitive, errors like that really are expensive. We made too many of them and given how few races there were, we couldn't get back into the game. I'd like to congratulate the Zen Too crew who won this stage having again demonstrated their ability in a strong breeze."   Nicolas Charbonnier, tactician: "In two races we made a mistake by sailing too close to our opponents and the jury penalised us with enforced turns. So, in the space of a few seconds, we found ourselves at the back of the fleet with no real possibility of making-up the ground, especially given the similar boat speed in this kind of wind conditions. Our starts weren't great, either, but we'll work on those this week to come back stronger in a few days." With two events to go in the 2018 D35 Championship Alinghi retains the lead, followed by Zen Too and Ylliam-Comptoir Immobilier. The team looks forward to having you follow their progress next weekend for the "Alinghi Grand Prix", which will be raced in front of Crans-près-Céligny from the 7th to the 9th of September. Click here for the rankings To find out more d35trophy.com Event hashtags #GoAlinghiGo // #D35Trophy If you want to know more about how to follow the racing, about Alinghi's team, or just about this regatta in general, you will find all that you need in this news story. Credit for photos © Loris Von Siebenthal

Five from five on opening day of last D35 GP

22 September, 2017

Alinghi had a faultless day on this, the opening of last D35 Grand Prix of the season – with five wins from the day’s five races, it was impossible to have had better results and Ernesto Bertarelli, who was at the helm, could not wished for a better birthday! Nicolas Charbonnier, the team’s tactician, was delighted: "It is certainly fair to say that we have had a great day. We had to wait for the wind for a while, but eventually we were able to race in 7-10 knots breeze all afternoon. Our starts were good throughout, with us sailing on the right side of the course every time. In addition to that, we had a great speed, with everyone working well together onboard. It was an ideal day, the sort you dream of when you get up in the morning to race." Nils Frei, the headsail trimmer, was also very pleased with the day’s racing: "We had conditions that were unexpectedly good. The weather forecast was rather unfavourable, but then we got a nice Séchard that was not really predicted. In the end, the conditions were perfect. We sailed under code zero (the larger of the two upwind sails), and « flew » (sailed with only one hull touching the water) all along. We managed to get the boat really going by finding the right balance between the front and the rear." For the end-of-day video recap with Nico and Nils (in French), just click here. The denouement of this, the eighth and final stage of the D35 Trophy, will take place tomorrow between 11h30 and 16h30 on the lake opposite the Société Nautique de Genève. Closing Grand Prix in SNG - Overall standings after five races (the worst score being discarded) : 1 - Alinghi: 4 points 2 - Ylliam Comptoir Immobilier: 10 points  3 - Mobimo: 17 points 4 - Realteam: 18 points 5 - Swisscom: 19 points 6 - Okalys: 20 points 7 - Racing Django: 21 points 8 - Zen Too: 23 points 9 - Phaedo2 : 32 points To find out more d35trophy.com Hashtags for the event #GoAlinghiGo  //  #D35Trophy If you want to know more about how to follow the racing, about Alinghi’s team, or just about this regatta in general, you will find all that you need in this news story. Photo credits: Loris von Siebenthal