Realstone takes second at Lake classic Geneva-Rolle-Geneva

by Realteam Sailing on 8 Jun 2014 Geneva-Rolle-Geneva 2014 - The Realstone Decision 35 team fought valiantly against Alinghi at the Geneva-Rolle-Geneva Lake classic on Saturday, recovering their form after a capsize on Wednesday evening during a training session followed by a frenzied 48-hour period fixing the boat, to finish in second place.

Geneva, 2014 – Realstone, helmed by Jérôme Clerc, crossed the Geneva-Rolle-Geneva finish line after 4 hours, 52 minutes and 58 seconds of intense racing on Saturday. The team got off to a good start and raced an excellent race, coming back at leaders Alinghi several times. 'We swapped the lead with Alinghi four or five times during the leg from Geneva to Rolle,' said skipper Jerome Clerc who was buzzing from almost five hours of match racing.

The team started the race reeling from a frenzied 48-hour period of fixing the boat after a capsize on Wednesday evening saw them replace the mast and one of the floats. 'We did not stop for a moment for two days and by the time we had tuned up the boat, we only had two hours of training before the start of the race!' added Jerome.

With the race fresh in his mind, he was able to say exactly where victory slipped from their grasp: 'We made a slight error in Rolle which more than likely cost us first place. After that with the ‘Sechard’ [name of one of the Lake winds] favouring the front of the fleet we never managed to catch up again. Having said that, it was incredibly close; the standard amongst the teams is very similar and we fought very hard for this result.'

Despite conditions being light for this 50th edition of the Geneva-Rolle-Geneva, the race finished unexpectedly early. 'Finishing so early was quite a surprise,' said the skipper. 'We have had much longer events than this one. It was so intense, it flew by!'

This result puts Realstone in second place overall on the Decision 35 season championship leaderboard going into the Open de Versoix on Sunday and Monday. 'We will rest on Monday night,' said Jerome Clerc with a grin.

Team :
Jérôme Clerc - barreur
Arnaud Psarofaghis - régleur de grand voile
Thierry Wasem - numéro 1
Denis Girardet - tacticien
Bryan Mettraux - régleur
Nils Palmieri - Event website