Long Night

The Bol d’Or is one of Europe’s largest regattas, certainly the largest on a lake, with more than 500 boats on the starting line and this year’s edition was one of the longest in the event’s 71 years. On Saturday morning there was barely a breath of wind, when the fleet set off, and by lunchtime the monohulls had barely moved and the multihulls were just a third of the way up the lake. By nightfall, the leaders had only just rounded the halfway mark at Le Bouveret and dawn had broken when the first boat, the D35 Foncia, crossed the finish line after racing for 19hours 33mins and 26 seconds. Slow it may have been, but that didn’t stop it being a nail biting finish; Gautier was closely followed by the M2 Genolier and five more D35s, SmartHome, Okalys-Corum, Zen Too, Julius Baer and Banque Populaire. Great finish pic from Loris von Siebenthal and more Bol d’Or pix here.