Monday, May 16, 2016

J/70 Swiss Sailing League- Société Nautique de Genève Wins!

J/70 sailing in Switzerland (Neuchatel, Switzerland)- Act II of the Swiss Sailing League just took place on the Neuenburger Lake, hosted by Cercle Voile de Neuchatel.  Twelve races were run over the three-day weekend.

With nine wins in twelve races, it was clear the team of Société Nautique de Genève (comprised of Fabrice Rigot, Marc Stern, Nicolas Kauffmann, and Mathieu Fischer) was the class act of the regatta.  Taking second with a relatively strong performance was the Regatta Club Oberhofen team (Stefan Seger, Matthias Fahrni, Jürg Aeschlimann, and Elianne Böni), managing three 1st and six 2nds in their score to just edge out the third place finishers by just one point- Société Nautique Rolloise (Olivier de Cocatrix, Marin Lauber, Sylvain Wenger, and Thomas Schutt). 

J/70 sailing Swiss League in Neuchatel LakeShortly before noon, a slight thermal breeze of 4-6 kts became established from the west. Race Officer Joel Broye responded immediately and started the first race of the day. Then, all the races happened in quick succession. The three leading teams were characterized by consistency, speed, good boat-handling and were thus, able to gain a significant points advantage.

The differential between the teams, however, were always very small. Even a small mistake had an immediate effect on the standings. A team could find themselves in a leading position at one mark and then at the end of the field at the next mark!

For the rest of the weekend, the breezes remained light from Saturday until Sunday afternoon; the wind never exceeded 4-6 kts.  Nevertheless, the CVN PRO Joel Broye did an amazing job, kept the pace fast, the teams rotating quickly on the water, and was able to run a total of twenty-four races over the whole weekend!  Amazing!  And, congratulations to the sailors and to Mr. Broye for their collective efforts to make it all happen.  The next Swiss Sailing League event will take place on Lake Geneva.   For more Swiss J/70 Sailing League information