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Vulcain Trophy présented by Business & Décision

Ladycat leads after 3 races

Saturday 9 June 2012

At the helm of Ladycat, Dona Bertarelli leads the Open de Versoix in front of Alinghi and Realstone Sailing. De Rham Sotheby’s finished first of the third race and is 4th of the provisional ranking. Tomorrow, the D35 fleet will take part in the traditional Geneva-Rolle-Geneva race starting at 1pm before coming back in Versoix on Sunday.

The nine teams participating in the Open de Versoix, third stage of Vulcain Trophy 2012, have waited until 5 pm to start racing. After a day of huge rain, the southwest wind made his way through the clouds. The Race Committee of the Club Nautique de Versoix was able to launch 3 races, after a change of course because of the shifty winds oscillating between 7 and 15 knots.

Ladycat leads after the first day of racing. The crew skippered by Dona Bertarelli has done a very good job starting with a fourth place, following with a win and a second place: “We had a lot of fun sailing today. We finally found the right trimming, we trained hard this week and it paid off. We now have a good speed.” Dona continues: “This new team is fantastic. We have good group cohesion, and the result is visible: everything worked fine. I found the boat easy to steer and when you have the right speed and maneuvers work out fine, it can only go well.”

But beware, the weekend is not over and the ranking is tight. Indeed, the first 4 teams are just one point from each other. Ladycat is closely followed by another Bertarelli, while the Kids of Realstone Sailing are right behind. De Rham-Sotheby’s helmed by Philippe Cardis is fourth of the ranking, with one beautiful victory. Artemis, helmed today by Xavier Revil (Tornado World Champion and holder of the Jules Verne Trophy on Banque Populaire in 2012), is not far, and perhaps did not show its full potential because of some technical problems. Okalys-Corum began well in the afternoon but ends with mixed results, they plan to come stronger later on the weekend. Veltigroup who made a major reshuffle of his crew has not found a real cohesion yet. In the last race, the crew of Nickel, poised to make a great result, got a penalty and was no longer able to pick up the fleet.

Tomorrow, the D35 have an appointment at 1 pm for the start of the Genève-Rolle-Genève, a coastal race traditionally organized by the Yacht Club of Geneva. Sunday, they will come back on the right side of Lake Geneva for the second day of the Open de Versoix.

Ranking after 3 races Open de Versoix:
1. Ladycat (D. Bertarelli) – 7 points
2. Alinghi (E. Bertarelli) – 8 points
3. Realstone Sailing (J. Clerc) – 9 points
4. de Rham – Sotheby’s (Ph. Cardis) – 10 points
5. Artemis Racing (X. Revil) – 16 points
6. Zen Too (F. Le Peutrec) – 17 points
7. Okalys Corum (N. Grange) – 21 points
8. Veltigroup (Simeoni-Lerch) – 22 points
9. Nickel (F.Moura) – 25 points

VULCAIN TROPHY, D35