Great blue skies, dropping south-west and wavering Séchard winds served as the setting for this first of lake Léman two classic races in the D35 Trophy. After four hours and nine minutes of racing, Alinghi crossed the finish line in 6th position overall (5th among the D35s) in the 55th Genève-Rolle-Genève. The D35 Zen Too (3h57'), Eleven Sailing Team (4h03'), and the M1 Ladycat powered by Spindrift (4h04') took the podium in this event which is synonymous with a warm-up for the Bol d'Or. Bryan Mettraux, trimmer: "We made a good start in the south-west, which allowed us to be in the hunt by the time we got to near Nyon. Then there was the first transition where we hit the northerly wind in which we rounded the halfway mark at Rolle in 3rd position. "We attacked well on the way back to Geneva, but it was quite special. We went down with the new wind, we got stuck in no pression, until it came back again (as the D35 goes faster than the wind in this light conditions). At one point we had to cross the lake to stay in the pressure, but we didn't cross exactly at the right time. "There is always a sense of success being shared in these races. Zen Too managed to come back through the fleet and crossed at the right moment. It's part of the game and they played it well." With such light conditions in such a long race, would it be wise to wait patiently and then to launch the assault at the right moment ? Nils Frei, trimmer, gives his point of view: "We have a little more cards in hand in general when we are in front, but these are races where anything can happen, with reversals of situation and sometimes the pressure that comes from behind. But it's hard enough to predict! I think we do not want to be a team that sits back and says we will see after. Especially given that there are races that develop from the front and others where it pays to come back from behind." See you next week, June 15th at 10am, wind or not, for the start of the 81st Bol d'Or Mirabaud. Click here for all the results of the Genève-Rolle-Genève. To find out more d35trophy.com  // ycg.ch/geneve-rolle-geneve/ #GoAlinghiGo  //  #D35Trophy  //  #GRG19 To find out more about how to follow the racing, the team composition and the circuit in general, find the event recap by clicking here. Photo credits ©EP medias

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

The red-white-and black Lac Leman multihull is entering the second half of the season in great and beautiful form, securing today, after the summer break, a victory in the sixth stage of the 2017 D35 Trophy, which was organised by the Geneva Yacht Club. Having recorded two race wins and two second places, the team dominated amidst various wind ranges.  Special mention must go to the young Arnaud Grange (15 years of age), who was at the helm of Okalys. He and his crew recorded a superb second place, while Zen Too occupied the third step of the podium. Ernesto Bertarelli said: "I was unable to be onboard for the Bol d'Or Mirabaud and the GC32 events this summer. It’s therefore really satisfying to be here, to find a team at the top of its form and to achieve such a good result." For Nils Frei, who spent his summer on the GC32 in the Extreme Sailing Series, returning to the D35 required some adaptation in terms of way of sailing: "The sails are a little bigger than the GC32, so there's more effort, but less maneuvering around the marks. There’s some compensation, though. To have this weekend’s result, however, we’ve got to say that the transition from one boat to another went rather well!" There is now a few days of rest for the team before they return to the lake for Act 7 of the D35 Trophy in the Alinghi Grand Prix of Crans-Près-Céligny (from 8 to 10 September).   Overall standings from Act 6 – Open du Yacht Club : 1st - Alinghi: 4 points 2nd - Okalys: 8 points  3rd - Zen Too: 10 points 4th - Ylliam Comptoir Immobilier: 11 points 5th - Racing Django: 13 points Click here for more results and the overall standings of the Championship after six Acts. Hashtags for the event #GoAlinghiGo  //  #D35Trophy To find out more d35trophy.com 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: Alinghi

The race committee had to resort to photo-finish to determine the winner of the 2017 Genève-Rolle-Genève, today on the Lake. Alinghi, who led the race virtually from start to finish, finished second in the final, just 20cm behind Swisscom. The nerves of the sailors were put to the test this afternoon, at this, the 53rd edition of the first of the two Lake Geneva season classics. Alinghi sailed a great race, staying ahead of their opponents, on the most part. Swisscom, nevertheless, pipped them to the line, thanks to some bold manoeuvres in the last few metres. "Overall, we are happy," said Nils Frei, shortly after crossing the finish line. "It was a real lake race, with turnarounds, little pressures here and there that we had to try to manage. We had a little concern about our timing at the start, we were not quite on it, but after that we were in the game, and we managed to cope very well with the changing wind." Tactician Nicolas Charbonnier believes he has aged ten years, so intense was the stress: "It was a beautiful Lake Geneva regatta with a few things, many of them tricky, for us to deal with. But we sailed well and I didn’t have to go up the rig to look for the wind pressure. Indeed, when sometimes we had no more wind, there was none anywhere! We just had to be patient.” Arnaud Psarofaghis also noted the stress of the race: "We did not have easy choices, and we did not always agree, but in the end we came together, correctly, and, up until the end, it was a very good fight with Swisscom." Yves Detrey, who is not known for being a big fan of long races, observed: "It's really tiring, not physically, but mentally. Decisions do not necessarily pay off right away; you have to wait and see how they will play out, which is really tough on the nerves. In addition, we had to be careful of the depth as we were often looking for local wind effects very close to shore. With a draft of 2.6m, we obviously don't want to run aground. Pierre-Yves Jorand commented: "We finished second just by one second, which was determined by the last little shift at the entrance mark. Swisscom had a good race, they put us under constant pressure all the way back to Geneva, and they managed to slip their bow just before the line. The race committee did a good job, watching and watching again the videos to finally declare them the winner by a few inches. The approach to these long races has changed over the last five or six years. Now, it is a race in which contact is permanent. Sailors do not take unnecessary risks and so the finishes are even tighter." Click here to watch the live rounding in Rolle with João's commentaries. To watch the finish and the comments of the crew straight after crossing the line, click here. Pour revoir l'arrivée serrée et les commentaires à bord et à chaud, juste après avoir coupé la ligne, click here. And for Pierre-Yves' analysis, click here. After two long days of competition (six races on Friday for the first day of the 3rd Grand Prix of the season and the "Genève-Rolle" this day), the team will rest for a night so that they might aim for a victory on the final day of the Realstone Grand Prix of Versoix tomorrow. Top 5 - Genève-Rolle-Genève : 1st - D35 Swisscom (5h41'13'') 2nd - D35 Alinghi (5h41'14'') 3rd - D35 Mobimo (5h46'26'') 4th - Ventilo M1 Safram (5h53'52'') 5th - D35 Ladycat Powered by Spindrift (6h01'06'') To find out more www.ycg.ch/geneve-rolle-geneve-2017 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 © EP Medias & Alinghi