The Bol d'Or is a Swiss regatta organized for the first time in 1939 by the Société Nautique de Genève (SNG). It takes place in a closed basin on Lake Leman, the largest alpine lake in Central Europe. Today, it is a great popular nautical event, and registered on the international regatta calendar. Participants must complete a course from Geneva to Le Bouveret to Geneva of 66.5 miles (123 km), on which three challenges are organized. The winner in real time of the course wins the Bol d'Or challenge, which is awarded every year. The first monohull to cross the finish line wins the Bol de Vermeil challenge. Finally, the winner of the Bol de Vermeil in compensated time wins the ACVL-SRS challenge.
The 77 e edition of the Bol d'Or Mirabeau, sponsored by Bernard Stamm, recent winner of the Barcelona World Race, promises to be particularly interesting. The capricious weather could well hold some surprises for the 3,000 announced participants, aboard 500 boats. Indeed, the weather, with an unstable wind regime and thunderstorms, may well thwart the plans of the most ambitious and favor the tactical and seafaring sense of the sailors.
Renowned ocean racing sailors will be present to compete in the Bol d'Or, in inland waters. We will find François Gabart, last winner of the Vendée Globe, who will sail on the D35 Okalys or Sébastien Josse, 3 e of the 2014 Route du Rhum, on the GC32 Edmond de Rothschild, a hydrofoil catamaran strongly inspired by the AC72s developed during the last America's Cup and which perfectly embodies the revolution underway in the world of boating, flying boats. They will try to challenge Yann Guichard, 2 e of the Route du Rhum and Dona Bertarelli, winners of the 2014 edition on the D35 Ladycat powered by Spindrift Racing in 5 hrs 38 min. They will also have to be wary of other favorites such as Tilt, the leading team in the D35 championship led by Sébastien Schneiter and Arnaud Psarofaghis, Alinghi, helmed by Ernesto Bertarelli, and Christophe Péclard's Ventilo M1 Safram, recent winner of the Geneva-Rolle-Geneva.
The start will be given at 10:00 on Saturday morning, June 13, still with two lines, one for the multihulls with the Neptune as the starting boat and the other across the whole width of the lake for the monohulls. For the monohulls, it will be a round trip to avoid the same boats starting each year from the same place. The different monohull classes will be distributed differently than last year, in a clockwise direction. The starting gun will be fired by Antoine Barde, President of the Geneva Grand Council.
Follow the regatta live
Set up in 2012, the Live Platform will allow sailors and the general public to experience the race in real time, broadcasting the start on Saturday morning, June 13 at 10:00 am, the passage of the Bouveret buoy and, in principle, the arrival of the first competitors. It will also allow to follow several exciting duels. In the monohull class, the battle between the Hungarian Libera Raffica and the Psaros 40 Syz will have a special flavour, as both boats have the possibility to win the Bol de Vermeil for good if they win this year. In the most represented class, the Surprise, the fight for victory will also be fierce among the hundred or so boats present this year. Finally, in the M2 class, GSMN Genolier will have its work cut out against its 18 competitors to preserve the title it won in 2014 with a two-minute lead.
Many foreign boats
This year, the Bol d'Or Mirabaud will also be able to count on the presence of several foreign boats, notably from Great Britain, Germany, the Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, and Italy, in addition to the many French boats. Rodolphe Gautier, the new President of the Bol d'Or Mirabaud Organizing Committee, is delighted with this: " The internationalization of the Bol d'Or Mirabaud is particularly close to my heart and will certainly be one of our priorities in the coming years. Our Organizing Committee, strengthened with the creation of a director's position (Laurence Zanon), intends to preserve the achievements of my predecessor Michel Glaus, in particular the reception of competitors, which is always at the center of our concerns
A village to celebrate the race on land
For once, the Société Nautique de Genève opens its doors to the public tomorrow, Friday, with a program as rich as it is dynamic. From 6 pm, the SNG will host the opening ceremony and two round tables with the ocean stars, while on Saturday, from 7 pm, the "Night of the Bowl" will allow the competitors who have crossed the finish line and the supporters to experience the race in a different way, from dusk to dawn. The prize distribution will take place on Sunday, June 14 at 7:00 pm.
