Christian Wahl is not the only winner of the BOM, and certainly not the only wizard of Lake Geneva either. A glance at the class winners demonstrates this.
Let’s start with Pascal Chatagny, one of the finest experts and strategists on Lake Geneva, winner for the fourth time in the Surprise class. To measure his achievement, we should point out that he sailed against 101 identical boats this year, 123 in 2010, 121 in 2006, and 151 in 2000 during his three previous victories. Chatagny has also competed countless times in the “5 Jours du Léman”, regularly finishing on the first step of the podium. Definitely a ‘wizard of Lake Geneva’!
In TCF1, the winner, Jean-Marc Deryng, has been sailing for as long as he can remember, from the days of the ABC class to the Grand Surprise, of which he was one of the leading figures for a decade, and now aboard Duplin 1820 Twister. It’s also worth mentioning that the top three finishers in the class sail Melges 32-type boats.
The TCF2 winner didn’t come out of nowhere either. David Pertuiset, aboard his Esse 850 Darnetal, is a regular on the podium. Third in the elapsed time ranking last year, a Mini sailor in his spare time, he also regularly competes in the “Syz Translémanique en Solitaire”.
Classes TCF 3 and 4 were both won by 6.5m SI yachts with different ratings. Frédéric Reymond on a modern boat, Lof Machine, and Christian Monachon on the venerable Ondine, built in 1932. Both fine experts on Lake Geneva, they too are candidates for the title of ‘wizard’.
Finally, the TCFX class was won by Raffica, about whom everything has already been said. We should point out, however, that projects for boats up to the maximum rating are currently under development, and will be present on the start line next year. Raffica and the Psaros 40 are over twenty years old. We’ll always love them, but we’re looking forward to discovering more recent projects.
