Alinghi 3rd in the 76th Bol d’Or

Sailed in a breezy North East wind (La Bise) the 76th, Bol d’Or was won by LadyCat powered by Spindrift racing, Dona Bertarelli and her crew adding a second victory of this mythic regatta to her successes.

Alinghi took third, after battling hard for more than 5 hours and 40 minutes, Realstone completing the podium in second.

Started with an already established medium to strong “bise”, the regatta was promising to be intense. All the D35 started with a reef in their mainsail to sail up-wind towards le Bouveret.

But the “Bise”, as expected, didn’t blow all the way to the Valais part of Lake Leman and a tactical war started at the approach of Lausanne, forcing the tactician to climb the mast to find some patches of wind on the suddenly calm waters ahead of SUI-1.

LadyCat managed to come back to the top of the fleet and passed the Bouveret mark ahead of her opponents.

The battle down wind back towards Geneva was intense and many teams went bow down in the waves more than once, pushing their machines to their limits!

Alinghi crossed the finish line in 3rd position after 5 hours 42 minutes of an exciting race from the start to the end and stays in the lead of the Vulcain Trophy before the season’s summer break.