With just two points separating the leader, Realteam and second-placed Alinghi, there was the potential for an exciting showdown at the TF35 Nyon in Switzerland, but the weather decided otherwise, and racing cancelled, Realteam prevailed.
Looking at the forecast overnight, Sunday was lining up to be another day of thrilling racing conditions for the final of the TF35 Nyon. Come morning, however, the wind had other plans.
“We were hoping for a good 12-15 knot south-westerly from 12:00pm,” Class manager, Bertrand Favre, explained. “Unfortunately, some heavy rain prevented the wind materialising on the lake. We could see good wind up in the mountains, which kept us optimistic, but unfortunately it didn’t happen.”
With no immediate hope of racing and a storm cell on the radar coming down the lake from Geneva the call was made at 14:30CET to cancel racing for the day.
After an almost perfect performance yesterday Esteban Garcia’s Realteam Sailing takes the TF35 Nyon regatta win and knocks Alinghi off the top spot in the overall ranking for the season.
“We are thrilled to win our first event, all the hard work this winter paid off,” enthused Realteam Sailing’s Co-Skipper Jérôme Clerc. “We had a great battle with Alinghi, almost a match race duel, which we really enjoyed. It was very close, so close in fact, that we even finished a race just a second behind them. It’s a promising start for the rest of the season, and we’re looking forward to the next race”.
Alinghi, which challenged Realteam Sailing’s every move on the racetrack this week, is tied on three points with their Swiss rivals in the TF35 Trophy overall standings but fall to second place on countback.
Spindrift opened the TF35 Nyon strong with third placed finishes and a race win on a day that saw deep results for the rest of the fleet. Dona Bertarelli and Yann Guichard’s team also claimed the weekend’s top speed of 36.7 knots downwind in race three. Having finished third at both the Opening Grand Prix and the TF35 Nyon, Spindrift takes a comfortable third in the overall standings.
Of the remaining fleet, only three points separate fourth to seventh. Bertrand Demole’s Ylliam XII – Comptoir Immobilier remains consistent with their second fifth-place finish of the season. Ten points overall ties Demole’s team with Frédéric Jousset’s Team SAILFEVER, however, it is the French Team SAILFEVER lead by Loïck Peyron that has the advantage on countback.
A fourth for Erik Maris’ Zoulou at the TF35 Nyon lifts the French team off the bottom rung of the overall leaderboard on 11 points with ZEN Too just two points adrift on 13.
At the end of the day, Bertrand Favre said: “Despite not racing today, we are very happy with the event. We had seven amazing races in a solid breeze. Racing was as intense and fun”.
The seven TF35s will meet again for the next round of the TF35 Trophy at the TF35 Mies, over the 4 and 6 June. To find out more about the TF35 Trophy visit tf35.org
Full results after seven races with one discard:
- SUI Realteam Sailing 1 5 2 1 1 2 1 – 8
- SUI Alinghi 5 2 1 2 2 1 2 – 10
- SUI Spindrift 3 1 3 4 4 3 3 – 17
- FRA Zoulou 2 4 5 3 3 5 4 – 21
- SUI Ylliam XII – Comptoir Immobilier 7 3 6 5 5 6 5 – 30
- FRA Team SAILFEVER 4 7 4 6 7 4 6 – 31
- SUI Zen TOO 6 6 7 7 6 7 7 – 39
Overall rankings after two events:
- SUI Realteam Sailing 2 1 – 3
- SUI Alinghi 1 2 – 3
- SUI Spindrift 3 3 – 6
- FRATeam SAILFEVER 4 6 – 10
- SUI Ylliam XII – Comptoir Immobilier 5 5 – 10
- FRAZoulou 7 4 – 11
- SUI Zen TOO 6 7 – 13
TF35 Trophy – 2021 entry list:
Alinghi (SUI 100)
Helm: Ernesto Bertarelli (SUI)
Tactician: Nicolas Charbonnier (FRA)
Mainsail: Bryan Mettraux (SUI)
Mainsail traveller: Arnaud Psarofaghis (SUI)
Headsail trimmer: Nils Frei (SUI)
Bowman: Yves Detrey (SUI)
Spare crew: Florian Trüb (SUI)
Realteam (SUI 7)
Skipper: Esteban Garcia (SUI)
Co-Skipper: Jérôme Clerc (SUI)
Tactician: Sébastien Col (FRA) / Denis Girardet (SUI)
Mainsail traveller: Cédric Schmidt (SUI) / Gurvan Bontemps (FRA)
Bowman: Benjamin Amiot (FRA)
Headsail trimmer: Rémi Aeschimann (SUI)
Spindrift (SUI 10)
Owners : Dona Bertarelli (SUI) / Yann Guichard (FRA)
Helm: Yann Guichard (FRA)
Tactician: Yann Jauvin (FRA)
Mainsail: Duncan Späth (SUI)
Mainsail traveller: Paul Dagault (FRA)
Headsail trimmer: Antoine Rucard (FRA)
Bowman: Jules Bidégaray (FRA)
Spare crew: Xavier Revil (FRA) / François Morvan (FRA)
Team SAILFEVER (FRA 009)
Helm: Frédéric Jousset (FRA)
Tactician: Loïck Peyron (FRA)
Mainsail trimmer: Arnaud Jarlegan (FRA)
Mainsail traveller: Yvan Ravussin (SUI) / Loïck Peyron (FRA)
Bowman: Devan le Bihan (FRA) / Matthieu Ravussin (SUI)
Headsail trimmer: Valentin Sipan (FRA)
Spare crew: Fabien Henry (FRA)
Ylliam XII – Comptoir Immobilier (SUI XII)
Helm: Bertrand Demole (SUI)
Tactician: Erwan Israel (FRA)
Mainsail: Thierry Briend (FRA)
Mainsail traveller: Pierre Pennec (FRA)
Bowman: Alexis Rochat (SUI)
Headsail trimmer: Teva Plichart (THA)
Spare crew: Hervé Cunningham (FRA) / Gaulthier Germain (FRA)
ZEN Too (SUI 4)
Helm: Frédéric le Peutrec (FRA)
Mainsail traveller: Guy de Picciotto (SUI)
Tactician: Tanguy Cariou (FRA)
Mainsail: Nicolas Berthoud (SUI)
Bowman: Arthur Cevey (SUI)
Trimmer: Jérémy Bachelin (SUI)
Trimmer: Jocelyn Keller (SUI)
Zoulou (FRA 007)
Helm: Erik Maris (FRA)
Tactician: Thomas le Breton (FRA)
Mainsail: Thierry Fouchier (FRA)
Mainsail traveller: Valentin Bellet (FRA)
Bowman: Nicolas Heintz (FRA)
Headsail trimmer: Bruno Mourniac (FRA)
For more information visit: http://tf35.org/teams
