Bold'Or Newsletter

Dear subscribers, dear partners,

Bilan is proud to annonce the Bol d'Or Mirabaud's newsletter presented by Girard-Perregaux.

You will receive the newsletter every three weeks and you will be able to consult the old editions (with videos) on the web site http://boldormirabaud.bilan.ch

Best regards

Stéphane Benoit-Godet
Chief redactor, Bilan

DATE 28.01.09

	The people Jean Psarofaghis
	The boats The Psaros 40
	The races the navigators dream about Sydney-Hobart
	Vidéo

Whilst a large number of the leading figures in international sailing are discussing the potential and strategies for the development of the sport at the World Yacht Racing Forum in Monaco, those out sailing continue to appreciate the ups and downs of racing on the open sea.

The solo skippers in the Vendée Globe have crossed the merciless southern seas, and you can count on your fingers the number of sailors who have arrived at Cape Horn.

With Michel Desjoyeaux out in the lead since mid-December, Vincent Riou and Jean Le Cam had to abandon the race near to the famous black rock. Neptune did not grant them the right of passage this time; that’s how it

goes in the Vendée. It was a huge disappointment. On the other side of the world, between Singapore and the South China Sea, the Volvo Ocean Race teams are on the Asian leg of their long voyage en route for Qingdao. This stage is due to end in the Chinese city in midwinter. It is considered to be the most difficult leg of the whole race and could well prove tougher than a passage through the Roaring Forties. While we are waiting for the clouds to clear, in this first newsletter of 2009 we invite you to spend a few days in Australia for a great classic race, and with Jean Psarofaghis and his Psaros 40, winner of the Bol de Vermeil in 2007.

Vidéo:

The Bol de Vermeil, the prize for the first monohull to cross the finish line, was introduced in 1996 because, since 1982, multihulls had always dominated the race. Like the Bol d’Or, the trophy has to be won three times in five years to be kept for good.

ITA 92-Raffica, champion in’96/’97 and’98, was an unequivocal winner of the trophy as soon as it was introduced.

The Psaros 40 Tilt has also deservedly received the award by winning in 2002, 2004 and 2006.

The people who
make the «Bol d’Or»
Jean Psarofaghis

Jean Psarofaghis freely admits that he is the Poulidor of
the Bol d’Or – the eternal second of the legendary monohull
regatta. In 2007 however, he managed to throw off
the curse and win at last, ahead of his direct challenger,
Taillevent.

An exceptional navigator who is well-known and respected
on the whole lake, Jean Psarofaghis has been involved for forty-odd years in most of the pioneering projects in the history
of sailing on Lake Geneva.

Originally from Corsier-Port, Jean spent a good part
of his childhood in the local boatyard, which was the centre of the sailing world of Geneva in the 1960’s.

He was the boatyard’s boy, known by all and going out on
anything he came across. The owners of 6mJI’s or 5.5mJI’s
invited him occasionally on sailing trips, during which he
learned as much as he could. When he was 13 he built his
own boat, a Moucheron. Smitten by this experience, he found
and did up a Lacustre while he was studying engineering.

This was the boat he first raced in with his father and his friend
Yves Anselmetti. He soon caught the competition bug and threw
himself full-time into boat building. In 1979 he set up his ‘Transléman’ard in new premises at La Pallanterie.
The company was exceptionally successful, producing a
hundred or so sailing boats, Toucans, 5.5m’s and other

prototypes up to the year 1984, when Jean sold the business
for health reasons.

But he quickly got bored away from the sailing scene and
soon returned to boat building on a more modest scale, working
on optimising boat design and subcontracting for larger projects.

He is a fine helmsman who continues to compete at the highest level, and has won numerous awards during the course of his career.

Swiss champion many times over with Toucans and 5.5mJI’s,
he is also vice world champion in this class. Jean is always lined
up for the start of the Bol d’Or, and enjoys the solo Translémanique race which he always participates in with his Psaros 40, which normally requires eight crew members.

His next objective is to complete the course of the Bol d’Or
in less than four hours on his new foil catamaran. He is a
determined man, and no-one will be surprised to see him
win this crazy bet.

Photos:
© myimage.ch
© Rolex/Carlo Borlenghi

Textes:
© Vincent Gillioz

The «Bol d’Or»
racing boats Mirabaud
The Psaros 40

The Psaros 40 is to the Lake Geneva monohull rather
as the Décision 35 is to the catamaran (see newsletter n° 5).

Indeed, this super-sporty sailing boat was created in the same
spirit as its multiple-float equivalent, i.e. at reduced
cost and as a monotype.

Because the heterogenity of the fleet of large monohulls was against the interests of the regatta – with wind conditions rather than the abilities of the crew determining who was to win – at the end of 2001 Jean Psarofaghis and the inseparable duo Schneiter-Firmenich contracted the boatyard Sebschmidt Architect Naval Sàrl to come up with a new design capable of winning the Bol de Vermeil.

The new boat had to be affordable and produced on a
small scale. After a first look at the specifications, the yard realised that to keep costs under control it would have to
restrict the length of the new

boat to 40 feet, as the price appeared to increase exponentially with the size of the hull. «We therefore had to come up with a boat which was more powerful than the then top-performer, Taillevent II, but which was two metres shorter,» explains designer Sébastien Schmidt.He adds: «To achieve an equivalent righting momentum, we soon realised that solutions such as a moveable keel, lateral floats and ballast were indispensible, so this is what we used, which was a first on Lake Geneva.»The Psaros boatyard took on the construction, subcontracting the production of the hulls to the builder Maxi Dolphin in Italy.The result was convincing, with the Tilt winning the Bol de Vermeil 2002 only a few days after it was put afloat. Three other boats were constructed after these first two, and even if Taillevent II managed to win by just four minutes in 2003, the Psaros 40’s came first in all the races thereafter.

Sydney-Hobart
Specification sheet

Date: Departure 26th December each year since 1945.

Place:Australia: Sydney, New South Wales and Hobart on the island of Tasmania.

Club: Cruising Yacht Club of Australia in cooperation with the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania.

Course:628 nautical miles. Departure from Sydney Harbour, down into the Tasmanian Sea, through the Bass Strait, around Tasman Island, across Storm Bay then up the Derwent River to the historic port of Hobart.

Types of boat:Open to monohulls from 9 m to 30 m. IRC Class or monotype.

Number of participants:Just under a hundred in the past ten years. Exceptionally, in 1994 there were 371 boats lined up at the start (50th anniversary).

To take part:Enrolment costs A$ 530 plus A$ 50 per crew member.

At least half of the crew should be able to prove they have passed a survival course approved by the competent authorities. Regatta information can be found at www.cyca.com.au

The races
the navigators
dream about
Sydney-Hobart

The Sydney-Hobart isn’t a kind of fine-weather cruise in the seas
of the southern hemisphere just because it takes place in the
middle of the southern summer. The skippers of the hundred
or so 30-90 ft sailing boats which leave the Australian city on
26th December each year know they will be racing in regions
which can at times be very inhospitable to sailors.

The course actually takes the competitors out into the
Tasmanian Sea, into the notorious Bass Strait (where
hundreds of wrecks lie) and around Cape Raoul and its
famous Organ Pipes, situated beyond the Roaring Forties
of the South Pacific. The first person to conquer the course
took six days and fourteen hours to reach Tasmania’s main city.
It took Wild Oats XI a mere forty-two hours to complete the
same voyage in 2005.

The Sydney-Hobart, a race just as fascinating as its equivalent in

the northern hemisphere, the Fastnet (see newsletter n° 1), has acquired its legendary status throughout a long, tumultuous and sometimes dramatic history. During the 1984 regatta nearly eighty per cent of the competitors abandoned the race and one sailor was washed overboard.

In 1998 a storm raged during the whole of the race and sank five boats. Fifty-four people had to be rescued and six crew members were lost.

But sailing enthusiasts shouldn’t be misled into believing that the Sydney-Hobart sends lambs to the slaughter. The organisation imposes draconian security conditions on the participants. Amateurs and professionals, large and small boats alike have to prove they are properly equipped and have the appropriate qualifications for such extreme navigation.

The welcome in Hobart is as well-known among participants as the rest of the race, the guys from down under feting the sea’s galley slaves as only they know how.