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Vulcain Trophy

Alinghi and Realstone in the lead

Sunday 6 May 2012

The second day of the Grand Prix Les Ambassadeurs was physically very demanding for the teams involved in the Vulcain Trophy. Six races were sailed today in a shifty westerly wind. Still plenty of action to report: men overboard, a capsize … who said that the lake was dead calm?

A westerly wind, between 9 and 18 knots, gusty and shifty, blew across the Lake Geneva today. Very demanding weather conditions especially for the tacticians: “You had to be on the right side of the lake and it was not always easy today!” said Yvan Ravussin, tactician on Artemis Racing. Fred Le Peutrec, helmsman on Zen Too confirms: “The constant shifts of this westerly wind make the tactics really difficult. What is interesting is that it is never really won, and never really lost. Sometimes it seems almost a bit random! Then when you see teams like Alinghi or Realstone that are regularly in front of the others, that’s not only luck!”

The sky became increasingly dark and grey today, but the storm hit in only when the boats were already moored. The day ends with stable results at the head of the ranking, Realstone Sailing and Alinghi dominating the competition. Artemis Racing made a spectacular comeback by climbing to the third place in the provisional ranking. The team led by Paul Cayard had a great win in the eighth regatta with a tactical choice along the shore. Ladycat, always in front of the fleet, takes the 4th place in the provisional overall ranking.

Okalys-Corum made several magnificent starts, but never made it to the top. “We sailed well, with a good speed, but we really need to make progress on the tactics. However the team has an enormous pleasure to sail together and it’s been fantastic to be able to sail 6 races today”, says Nicolas Grange.

Guy de Picciotto, owner of Zen Too, wonders what will happen tomorrow, “After a crash yesterday, today we capsized and the mast got stuck in the mud! “. Near the windward mark, a violent gust entered and made the boat pitchpole, so that the hulls were planted in the water. Everything fortunately happened in a fairly mild but spectacular way. More surprising, the crew has been able to bring the boat back on the right side, without any break and was able to sail the last two races.

Veltigroup was not in lack of adrenalin, and especially the owner Marco Simeoni who went twice overboard in the same day! The first time he fell in the water in a somewhat abrupt maneuver, the second while the boat was practically upright and when he jumped on the back side of the “rack”, saving the boat from capsizing.

Sunday is the last day of the competition: six races can still change a very close provisional ranking!

Provisional ranking after the second day:

1. Realstone Sailing (16 points) – 2. Alinghi (20 points) – 3. Artemis Racing (36 points) – 4. Ladycat (38 points) – 5. Okalys-Corum (45 points) – 6. De Rahm-Sotheby’s (47 points) – 7. Zen Too (51 points) – 8. Nickel (59 points) – 9. Veltigroup (67 points)

Vulcain Trophy Program 2012
Grand Prix Les Ambassadeurs, Société Nautique de Genève (SNG) – 4-6 May 2012
Open de Crans, Club Nautique de Crans-près-Céligny (CNC) – 26-27 May 2012
Genève-Rolle-Genève, Yacht Club de Genève (YCG) – 9 June 2012
Grand Prix de Versoix, Club Nautique de Versoix (CNV) – 8 et 10 June 2012
Bol d’Or Mirabaud, Société Nautique de Genève (SNG) – 16 June 2012
Open du Yacht Club, Yacht Club de Genève (YCG) – 25-26 August 2012
Open de Morges, Club Nautique de Morges (CNM) – 8-9 September 2012
Grand Prix Grange et Cie, Société Nautique de Genève (SNG) – 21-23 September 2012

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