Flying Phantom @Bol d’Or 2014: 6:21hrs & 11th (Unofficial)

Image Phantom International. PR excerpt: “The unofficial time for the Flying Phantom recorded on the finishing line by the team was 6 hours and 21 minutes, with a “virtual” position just after Hydros.ch that finished 9th with a time of 06 h 18mins 25 s and ahead of the first M2, GSMN Genolier in 06 h 24 mins 02 s. Skipper Dona Bertarelli, Yann Guichard and the crew of Ladycat powered by Spindrift racing won this 76th with a time of 05 h 38 mins.”

Gurvan Bontemps & Benjamin Amiot are one of the top F18 crews in the World, and they also have by now lots of Raid & Long Distance racing hours. Doing the Bol d’Or is not an easy endeavour, finishing near some big M1 cats and in front of several M2 is even more impressive. With dead calm the FP struggles as seen at Geneve-Rolle but with some decent wind the the performs as we saw at Carnac and now at the Bol d’Or.
You have the tool but experienced and first class sailors like Gurvan & Ben are key. Check their comments on the experience below. The Texel is going to be quite interesting to follow.
Bol d’Or Real Times Here
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Press release FP: Flying week in Geneva: Bol d’Or & Testing sessions.
From June 7th to 15th, the Phantom International team moved its operational base to the Société Nautique de Genève in Geneva to take part in the Geneva-Rolle-Geneva, to present the Flying Phantom to Swiss sailors and race around Lake Geneva with the fleet of the Bol d’Or Mirabaud.
With six boats already ordered in Switzerland for a total of
43 sales, this week was an important milestone that provided the team with the opportunity to meet future Swiss Flying Phantom owners and organize sailing sessions with D35 catamaran sailors.

Bol d’Or Mirabaud 2014
On Saturday the 14th, the 76th Bol d’Or Mirabaud took place at the Société Nautique de Genève. Organized for the first time in 1939, the Bol d’Or has become the most important inland lake regatta in the world. The race course is simple: a round-trip from Geneva to Le Bouveret
and back with a total distance 123 kilometres or 66.5 nautical miles. As the Flying Phantom does not comply with any of the classes allowed to enter the race, the team decided to sail around Lake Geneva following the same racecourse and starting at the same time as the other boats competing in the Bol d’Or. This edition was a real success with more than 500 boats and 3000 sailors and was sailed in challenging conditions with strong Bise wind on the lake.

Flashback with Gurvan Bontemps and Benjamin Amiot
How did you prepare for this epic race?
G.B. “We have a broad track record of long distance races with Benjamin with races such as the Round Corsica event or the Martinique Cata Raid and we also competed a few years ago in the Bol d’Or on an M2 catamaran. With the Flying Phantom we had only raced the Eurocat long distance and earlier this week the Geneva-Rolle-Geneva so our main objective was to perform and finish at any cost. From a safety point of view, we took all the boat equipment required for this type of race including: flares, flashlight, lights, paddle, phone … moreover Alex was following us with the Goldfish 28’ tender so everything was done to ensure our safety around the lake.”

Tell us about the race
B.A. “One of the priorities was to do this race without hampering the other boats sailing in the Bol d’Or. Prior to the start at 10:00 am, we positioned the boat next to the SNG outside of the start area. We started as soon as the first D35s came up level with us. For the upwind leg we alternated between the French and Swiss side, after leaving the small lake we were close to the M2 fleet with almost identical performances in terms of speed and VMG in around 15 knots of wind. We continued to follow the Swiss coast up to Lausanne alternating between patchy zones with calms and gusts, we stayed a little bit too long in this area, but we then started a reaching leg in flying mode with or without the gennaker until Le Bouveret. We passed the mark after 2 or 3 M2s and headed back to Geneva following a curved line between the French and the Swiss coasts with a long starboard reaching section right up to entering the small lake. Approaching the finish line the wind became much stronger around 25 knots and under gennaker we overtook the last M2s to finish just after the M2 TeamWork and the Hydros.ch. After more than 6 hours of sailing we were very happy to finish.”

G.B. “It was a fantastic race, intense, requiring a lot of focus due to the conditions. We are very satisfied with the result and being able to race side by side with other multihulls. The Flying Phantom demonstrated today that she is also a boat for this type of race and we were able to demonstrate to our Swiss customers that this is a boat that is perfect for Lake Geneva with the ability to fly. I hope that next year we will be able to line up at the start of the Bol d’Or officially to compete in this wonderful event. Talking about long distance races, we would like other races like Round the Island in the UK or the Tour de Belle Ile in France to open up the event to the Flying Phantom in order to liven up these races.”

The unofficial time for the Flying Phantom recorded on the finishing line by the team was 6 hours and 21 minutes, with a “virtual” position just after Hydros.ch that finished 9th with a time of 06 h 18mins 25 s and ahead of the first M2, GSMN Genolier in 06 h 24 mins 02 s. Skipper Dona Bertarelli, Yann Guichard and the crew of Ladycat powered by Spindrift racing won this 76th with a time of 05 h 38 mins.

TESTING WEEK WITH THE FLYING PHANTOM
The sailing sessions with the Flying Phantom started on Monday evening after the end of the Open de Versoix for the D35s with Arnaud Psarofaghis – Realteam Sailing and Jérémy Bachelin – Team Tilt. Conditions were very unstable but it was possible to fly upwind and downwind offering fantastic pictures in front of the famous fountain in Geneva. Many other sailors including Lucien Cujean and Sébastien Schneiter had the opportunity to fly during the week and were able to appreciate the foiling performance of the Flying Phantom.

The Phantom International team would like to thank the Société Nautique de Genève, the Yacht club de Genève and all the Swiss sailors for their great reception and the enthusiasm they showed for the Flying Phantom. We look forward to coming back next year.

The next event for the team is the Round Texel Race in the Netherlands, which is one of the biggest multihull events in the world and will be held from June 26th to 28th.