Christian Wahl and his Double You Team conquer the trophy
The skipper of Double You Team and his crew, in collaboration with the Sailing Squad, won the race after a thrilling finish, 18 minutes 30 seconds ahead of Swiss Medical Network. Following his victories in 2018 and 2022, Christian Wahl has definitively conquered the Bol d’Or Trophy. Hungarian Libera Raffica wins the Bol de Vermeil, awarded to the first monohull.
Suspense right to the end! The 84th edition of the Bol d’Or Mirabaud delivered a thrilling scenario and kept the many fans on the edge of their seats right up to the last minute of the race.
Still trailing at the entrance of the “Petit Lac”, the Genevan skipper and his crew made up their deficit in the final kilometers of the race, successively overtaking Realteam Sailing, which dominated for most of the day, and the M2 Patrimonium skippered by Loïc Preitner, which was itself overtaken by Swiss Medical Network ten meters from the finish line.
“It was a very tough race. Everything came to a head of Coppex,” said Christian Wahl after the race. “We were three boats separated by ten meters, with Realteam Sailing and Patrimonium. We managed to slip in under Realteam Sailing and build up a slight advantage, which we then extended right up to the finish line.”
The crew of TF 35 Realteam Sailing had opted to replace their foils with traditional daggerboards; an option which proved favourable but which was not enough to beat the talented Wahl, whose Double You Team crossed the finish line at 3h14’02”, after 17 hours and 14 minutes of racing. Wahl’s crew included the ‘regulars’ Guillaume Rol, Mathieu Cadei and Romuald Hausser collaborating with the Sailing Squad composed of Laurane Mettraux, Anja von Allmen and Eilidh McIntyre. The Sailing Squad is an initiative by Mirabaud Bank to form a crew coached by double British Olympic champion Shirley Robertson and to produce a TV mini-series devoted to their participation in the Bol d’Or Mirabaud.
Double You Team won the Bol d’Or by 18 minutes and 30 seconds over the M2 catamarans Swiss Medical Network (SMN). Skipper of SMN, Victor Casas explains: “It was a great race with the youngsters from the CER and Didier Pister, who has a lot of experience in M2. We came back with some speed under Patrimonium, who was in a soft patch, and we got ahead, so it was very close.” In the end, SMN beat Patrimonium by just 50 seconds!
In the monohull category, the Psaros 40 Cellmen Ardentis dominated most of the race, crossing the halfway mark in the lead before finally giving way to the inevitable Hungarian Libera Raffica, which crossed the finish line shortly after five in the morning. Thomas Jundt’s QFX was in a remarkable third place in the early hours of the morning, slightly ahead of a group made up of the Syz Psaros 47, the Luthi 1090 Katana and the Richards 36 Fora-Scie.
The very light wind conditions, which have already led to 82 retirements, should change for the better on Sunday morning with a light breeze on the programme.
