81st Bol d'Or Mirabaud: The Bol d'Or balance sheet: broken, capsized, sunk

When the Bol d'Or was first held in 1939 under the name "Tour du Lac des Faces Pâles", hardly anyone could have imagined that the usually tranquil Lake Geneva would one day be the scene of such a stormy race as this 81st edition. The Swiss classic, which America's Cup legend Dennis Conner was also able to complete fastest in 1989 with his revolutionary catamaran "Stars and Stripes" (although he was not registered as the winner due to exceeding the maximum dimensions for boats on Lake Geneva), usually takes place in rather calm winds. Not so this year. Dramatic storms and a series of mast breakages made the 2019 regatta an even more memorable event in survival conditions than the last stormy edition in 2013. It is also thanks to the very present and prudent rescuers that worse was prevented.

The video lasts just under eight minutes and uses the onboard camera on the Grand Surprise "Morpho" to show how the storm develops - until the mast breaks, ending the speedy journey on Lake Geneva

The organisers have now published their results. Although the storm that swept across the regatta field had been predicted by Météo Suisse, many teams were nevertheless hit hard by its severity. The initially pleasant afternoon sailing in a light south-westerly Sunday breeze was followed last weekend on Lake Geneva by a radically darkening sky and - as described by some participants and the organisers - "apocalyptic conditions": Squalls of 50 knots and more descended on the fleet. In addition, hail pelted the decks in extremely limited visibility. Météo Suisse even recorded wind peaks of over 60 knots - more than 110 kilometres per hour. As a result, sailors went overboard, masts and crews abandoned the race in a "firework display of distress signals"; the organisers registered 212 abandonments. The number of broken masts has now been officially estimated at 40. Several boats sank, including "Toucans Baloo" and "Ex-Psaros". The top favourite "Realtime" lost its mast and five M2 boats capsized. And finally, the Libera "Principesa" also capsized, but its crew was rescued unharmed.

This clip also bears witness to the harsh conditions at the 81st edition of the Bol D'Or

The rescue teams were coordinated by the organising Société Nautique de Genève. The club, which won the America's Cup twice with Ernesto Bertarelli's Alinghi team, did a great job coordinating with the rescuers. Rodolphe Gautier, President of the Organising Committee, explained: "Météo Suisse had predicted the situation fairly accurately and provided the participants with information. In this respect, the people were prepared when the strong winds set in and handled the situation well. They followed the instructions even in the most extreme situations. From this point of view, the safety system worked well. The volunteers in charge acted decisively without being overloaded. We take our hats off to them."

The storm race was won by Yann Guichard and his team on "Ladycat powered by Spindrift Racing". However, the organisers congratulated all the teams who were confronted with the exceptional weather conditions and used good seamanship to ensure that the race ended without any problems. The fast catamaran completed the course in 10 hours, 36 minutes and 21 seconds. Three minutes later, "Yllian Comptoir Immobilier" crossed the finish line as the second boat with Bertrand Demole at the helm. Another three minutes later, Ernesto Bertarelli's "Alinghi" took third place on the podium. The fastest monohull yacht was the Libera "Raffica". In the largest class of 101 (!) surprises, "Moi Non Plus" with Lorenz Kausche came out on top. Lionel Maret and his crew on the rather small Modulo 93 "Matière Grise" secured overall victory in the handicap classification based on calculated time.