Esteban Garcia’s Realteam Sailing skippered by Jérôme Clerc with tactician Sébastien Col have won the single race final day of the TF35 Voiles de Choisi, winning the event with a five-point advantage over Yann Guichard’s Sails of Change 8.
“I’m proud of our team,” Clerc enthused at the prize giving. “We had to be ahead of Sail of Change 8, who are at the top of the leaderboard, if we still wanted to be in the game for the overall ranking at the end of the season. Our two boats will go head-to-head for the final of the Realstone Cup in Geneva; it will be a great battle until the end of the season”.
With no wind on day two, the race committee led by PRO Benoit Deutsch was keen to get some racing in on Lake Geneva for today’s final. At the morning skipper’s briefing, the forecast looked promising, similar to day one, with the thermal Séchard breeze kicking in in the afternoon and the best racing near Nyon. So, the race committee went out to monitor the situation.
At 12:45 local time, the call was made for the teams to go on the water, and the race committee was able to get one race away in 10 knots of breeze before the storm cells gathered and an unstable 20 knots kicked in, ending the day.
Off the start, the fleet was compressed Bertrand Demole’s Ylliam XII – Comptoir Immobilier and Julien Firmenich’s Yilliam 17 were well positioned, going furthest to the favoured right, whilst Sails of Change 8, Zen TOO and Realteam took a more central route to get into clear air. At the windward mark, Ylliam XII – Comptoir Immobilier pulled out a small advantage but impressively extended on the downwind leg to a comfortable lead. The race was looking good for the team until the second windward mark when they suffered a two jibe penalty for not giving room to Realteam. This opened the door for Realteam and Zen TOO. In the final 400m sprint to the finish line Realteam took the lead, Zen TOO in second and Ylliam XII – Comptoir Immobilier in third.
“We were a bit frustrated on Friday because we felt we could have done better. Today we got things back on track and we finished with a second. Our baseline game is strong, there’s still work to be done, but it’s getting better and better,” explained Zen TOO skipper Loic Forestier. “We still need to improve our consistency and stability if we’re going to get better results. But I’m really pleased to be on the podium with Guy.”
In the overall ranking, the points are close. Realteam has moved ahead Sails of Change 8 tied on four points. Guy de Picciotto’s Zen TOO has move into third place ahead of Ylliam XII – Comptoir Immobilier tied on 10 points and Ylliam 17 is in fifth place ahead on countback with Sails of Change 10 tied on 15 points.
“We had a great Grand Prix, on a magnificent stretch of water, hosted by the extraordinary Choisi estate, so a big thank you to them. Three days of racing in fairly irregular winds. We finished second here and second overall behind our rival Realteam,” Sails of Change 8 owner and helm Yann Guichard concluded. “We’re tied on all the races, and it’s going to come down to the last Grand Prix regatta in 15 days’ time, so it’s pretty much up in the air. It’s not going to be easy, but the whole team believes in it.”
TF35 LES VOILES DE CHOISI:
(after five races with one discard)
1. Realteam Sailing (SUI 7) – 1 1 2 3 1 – 5
2. Sails of Change 8 (SUI 8 ) – 5 2 3 1 4 – 10
3. ZEN Too (SUI 4) – 4 6 1 5 2 – 12
4. Ylliam XII—Comptoir Immobilier (SUI 12) – 3 5 4 4 3 – 14
5. Ylliam 17 (SUI 17) – 2 3 5 6 6 – 16
6. Sails of Change 10 (SUI 10) – 6 4 6 2 5 – 17
TF35 TROPHY OVERALL RANKING 2024:
(after five events with one discard)
1. Realteam Sailing (SUI 7) – 2 1 2 1 – 4
2. Sails of Change 8 (SUI 8 ) – 1 2 1 2 – 4
3. ZEN Too (SUI 4) – 4 3 5 3 – 10
4. Ylliam XII—Comptoir Immobilier (SUI 12) – 3 5 3 4 – 10
5. Ylliam 17 (SUI 17) – 6 6 4 5 – 15
6. Sails of Change 10 (SUI 10) – 5 4 6 6 – 15
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