Bol d’Or Mirabaud 2022: Win for ‘W-Team’ (D35)

Not much wind for the entire course for this 2022 Bol d’Or Mirabaud edition. The former Lake King, Decision 35 won in light wind conditions over their successor TF35 Foiling machines. Still Grand Maestre, Loick Peyron took his TF35 Foiling machine to excellent 2nd overall in real time, two hours behind.

First Monohull , Libera Raffica and Hungarian skipper Zsolt Király. (11th in real time).

All images by Loris von Siebenthal & M Giraud / Bol d’Or Mirabaud

Below pretty accurate auto translated official reports by BOM web: boldormirabaud.ch/actualites/

Top 20 Real Time results, complete list at boldormirabaud.ch/classements/classement-2022/

The skipper of the Decision 35 is entering the legend of the race: with eight victories, he is now the most successful sailor in history. w-team is ahead of the TF35 Artexplora, skippered by Loïck Peyron.

Geneva, June 11, 2022 – The 83rd edition of the Bol d’Or Mirabaud brought together 438 sailboats this weekend on Lake Geneva. The race took place in very light conditions and was dominated for a long time by the Decision 35 and M2 catamarans, designed in the early 2000s. On the last quarter of the course, Loïc Peyron and his TF35 Artexplora returned to the forefront, but without ever threatening the leader.

Positioned in the leading group from the start of the race, Christian Wahl and his team of young people, made up of Romuald Hausser, Romain Defferard, Nelson Mettraux, Guillaume Rol and Mathieu Cadei took the lead of the race at the exit of the small lake. , never to leave her again.

Perfectly mastering the subtle variations of the wind, the “sorcerer of Lake Geneva”, as Christian Wahl is nicknamed, controlled the race from start to finish, crossing the finish line at 10:24:16 p.m.

”  I’m extremely happy  ,” said the skipper of w-team at the end of the race. “  It’s a magnificent team victory, to which I also wish to associate our meteorologist Philippe Jeanneret, with whom we worked a lot before the race. Our victory is a summary of my experience and the freshness of the other members of the team. »

Second in the race for a long time, the young sailors from the Okalys Youth Project, helmed by Arnaud Grange, took a bad option off Yvoire and lost all hope of winning. Conversely, the brilliant and still formidable Loïck Peyron, skipper of the TF35 Artexplora, patiently came back into contact with the race leader. He occupied a comfortable second place when the winner arrived, followed at a respectable distance by the Decision 35 Okalys Youth Project and a compact group including the M2, Blackpearl, DCM Systematic advisors and Victorinox, as well as the TF35 Zen Too and Alinghi Red Bull Racing, come back from very far.

Among the monohulls, a great battle pitted Philippe De Weck’s Luthi 1090 Katana against the Psaros 40 Cellmen throughout the day, not forgetting Thomas Jundt’s QFX and the best Psaros 33, Carpediem Cube, Eole 7 or Raijin. Starting badly, the Libera Raffica completed a breathtaking second part of the race and was evolving among the best multihulls around midnight.

The most represented class in the fleet, that of the Surprises (107 units) was dominated throughout the day by Adrénaline Les 2 Rives, of Thierry Campiche. For the vast majority of competitors, the night will still be long. And in particular for the Surprises which began to cross the barge of Bouveret while the winners sabered the champagne.

They said :

Romuald Hausser: “  The weather turned in our favor and we played with the wind we had. We knew how to work with our boat and take advantage of every gust of wind, from the start to the finish line. It’s a great team victory.  »

Matthieu Cadei: “  We really believed in victory 100 meters before the finish line. Last year was a blow for us; we thought we would win and were overtaken at the end. We stayed focused until the last second.  »

Guillaume Rol: “  What a pleasure to return with so many people! It was tough and we never released the pressure. Arriving with all this atmosphere at La Nautique was incredible. »

The formidable dinghy definitively won the Challenge Bol de Vermeil thanks to her third victory in the monohull classification in five years.

Winner of the monohull classification, and eleventh in the scratch classification, the sailboat skippered by Zsolt Király and his fifteen crew definitely won the Bol de Vermeil. 

Already a winner in 2019 and 2021, Raffica suffered a lot during the first part of the course, even navigating in the depths of the classification until the exit of the small lake. 

With its fifteen crew members acting as mobile ballast, the dinghy finally found its cruising speed in the big lake, catching up with its competitors one after the other to cross the Bouveret barge in 18th place, second monohull behind the Luthi 1090 of Philippe DeWeck.

The return trip, on the other hand, was breathtaking, with Raffica definitely taking the lead in the monohull classification and having the luxury of overtaking several TF35s, including Realteam for Léman Hope and Alinghi Red Bull Racing. 

Raffica finally crossed the finish line at 1h38’15”, in eleventh place overall. Her skipper, Zsolt Király, joins Ernesto Bertarelli, Louis Noverraz, Daniel Stampfli and Yves Detrey in the very exclusive club of sailors who have won the Bol d’Or six times.