Ylliam XII Comptoir Immobilier, winner of the 82nd Bol d'Or Mirabaud

2021 Bol d'Or Mirabaud © Loris Von Siebenthal / Bol d'Or Mirabaud

The 82nd edition of the Bol d'Or Mirabaud pleased the fans of turnarounds and drama. Ylliam XII Comptoir Immobilier, skippered by Bertrand Demole, finally won the race after a long battle. The Hungarian Libera Raffica won the monohull ranking.

Ylliam XII Comptoir Immobilier, the winner of the 82nd edition of the Bol d'Or Mirabaud, needed 12 hours 49 minutes and 27 seconds to finally hear the liberating gunshot off the Société Nautique de Genève.

"It's wonderful, we're extremely happy," exclaimed Demole at the champagne hour. "It was a very interesting race, with a spectacular finish, in close contact with our pursuers, at 25 knots in the dark night."

The TF35 won by 19 seconds over Zen Too, helmed by Fred Le Peutrec, and 25 seconds over Artexplora, helmed by Loïck Peyron. Alinghi crossed the line 9 seconds later, Realteam 14 seconds later and Spindrift another 6 seconds later.

Before being able to celebrate this splendid victory, Ylliam XII Comptoir Immobilier and the other boats in the leading group went through all kinds of moods. The start of the race, to begin with, took place in extremely light wind conditions, which allowed the 'small' M2 catamarans as well as the D35s Emil One and Zen Too to demonstrate that they are still to be reckoned with in very light winds.

Emineo, helmed by Olivier de Cocatrix, even crossed the halfway mark in the lead, ahead of the Decision 35 Emil One and another M2, Patrimonium. It was quite a coup, as the first TF35 hydrofoil catamaran, Artexplora, was only sixth.

Off Evian, on the way back, Emineo still had a good five kilometre lead over Emil One and a good fifteen kilometres over the first TF35. It was then that the long-awaited breeze kicked in, alas temporarily, but enough to allow the foilers to lengthen their stride and make almost 30 knots, while the M2 peaked at around 15.

Eaten alive off Thonon, the valiant M2 will have experienced more than its hour of glory. The end of the race proved painful however, as its direct competitors overtook him in view of the Jet d'Eau.

Zen Too, Comptoir Immobilier, came dangerously close to the shore before winning the sprint that we know.

In the monohulls category, Raffica won after 14 h 07 23'' of racing. The Hungarian Libera dominated the second part of the race, ahead of the Luthi 1080 Katana and Thomas Jundt's QFX, which made a remarkable start in light air.

More than fifteen kilometres separate these three boats from the chasing pack, the usual Psaros 40 and 33, Taillevent etc.

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