Lake Geneva Bol d'Or- A fine victory for Dona Bertarelli

by Jobé Jean Philippe on 15 Jun 2010
72nd edition of the Bol D'or: First win for a multihull crewed by a mostly female team

The Bol d'Or race on Lake Geneva was raced this week-end in light conditions, wind probably peeked around 15 knots during the night, but it died down on Sunday so that more than half the fleet did not finish. In fact over 500 boats were on the line and only 183 did arrive before the closing time at 16h00 on Sunday afternoon.

After close to 17 hours of sailing, the D35 Ladycat, helmed by Dona Bertarelli, Ernesto's sister, won one of the most prestigious and most difficult races in front of an international array of ocean champions. Several boats were helmed by international sailors like Michel Desjoyaux, Pascal Bidégorry, Dominique Wavre and Loïck Peyron.

The team, mostly women, demonstrated an impressive level of confidence and tenacity, managing to lead the entire race along with two smaller M2 catamarans, Safram and Tilt. On the finishing line, the pink painted multihull, arrived alone with an almost two hours lead over Banque Populaire, helmed by the ocean skipper and recordholder Pascal Bidégorry.

In the monohull category, Oyster Funds won the race after more than 21 hours of sailing.