The Décision 35 skippered by Christian Wahl dominated the first half of the race and crossed the halfway mark in the lead, ahead of another D35, Okalys Youth Project (Arnaud Grange).
The start of the 83rd Bol d’Or Mirabaud was given this morning at precisely 10:00 am in very light wind conditions. Two M2 catamarans, DCM Systematic advisors (Christophe Péclard) and Nickel (Pierre Moura), quickly pulled away, closely followed by Christian Wahl’s w-team aboard his Décision 35 catamaran.
Also at the front, Thomas Jundt’s QFX monohull and Philippe De Weck’s Luthi 1090 Katana, both off to a good start and very fast in these evanescent airs.
The climb to Le Bouveret followed the usual weather patterns, with most competitors opting for the most direct route possible, between the French coast and mid-lake.
When the wind picked up (very slightly) in the early afternoon, the TF35 hydrofoil catamarans logically managed to make up some of their deficit. Spindrift, which had been well placed since the start, and Zen Too came back to the front of the race, as did the great favourite Alinghi, which got off to a bad start but returned to the leading group at Le Bouveret.
Nevertheless, it was Christian Wahl and his team of young hopefuls from French-speaking Switzerland who crossed the Bouveret barge in the lead, at 4:09pm, after six hours and nine minutes of racing. Another Décision 35, Okalys Youth Project, helmed by Arnaud Grange, crossed the course mark some ten minutes later, followed by DCM Systematic advisors and the other multihulls.
The top fifteen have built up a substantial advantage over the leading monohulls, Katana, Cellmen Ardentis (François Thorens) and QFX, at this stage of the race.
The Hungarian Libera Raffica, in search of a third Challenge Bol de Vermeil (victory in the monohull category), also got off to a poor start, but came back into contact with the leading monohulls at Meillerie. Other monohulls made a very good start to the race, such as Carpediem Cube (Luc Munier), Raijin (Bertherat / Girod) in the Psaros 33 category or …moi non plus (Lorenz Kausche) in the Surprises category.
There’s still a long way to go, and the return journey is sure to be a tough one for the tacticians. In theory, the Morget should rise in the early evening, but will it be there? Will the best crews dare to cross the lake to get it?
The answer in a few hours!
