Friday, June 9, 2017

RC Bodensee Tops Swiss J/70 Act III

J/70 women sailors Switzerland (Kreuzlingen, Switzerland)- The third act of the Swiss Sailing League was held on Lake Constance, hosted by the Kreuzlingen Yachthafen.  A dozen teams from across Switzerland were participating in a wide variety of weather conditions, from a near “glass-out” to good medium breezes blowing down the length of the near 40nm long lake that borders Germany, Switzerland and Austria.  Over the three-day event, seventeen races were sailed and the sailing could not have been closer, with the lead determined on a tie-breaker and the top five separated by a mere 7 pts!!

It was a pretty “hair raising” regatta for many of the top teams.  Going into the 14th race of the regatta (out of 17 sailed), you could easily say that the top three teams, Regattaclub Bodensee, Regattaclub Oberhofen, and Societe Nautique de Geneve were all tied on points.  Plus, just sitting on the edge of that cliff for third were Societe Nautique Rolloise and YC Bielersee.  The racing was so close that if you sneezed, missed a shift, or left a spinnaker sheet in the water, you would gain or lose a place!! Insanity, to say the least for all the tacticians on the various teams.

In the end, by closing with two bullets after an OCS in race 14, RC Bodensee crew (Julian Flessati, Stephan Ammann, Jonathan Rutishauser and Lea Rüegg) took the regatta win on a tie-breaker on 49 pts over their arch-nemesis, the RC Oberhofen (with skipper Alain Stettler) that closed with a 3-3  Happy to be in the frame and sitting on the bronze position on the podium was SN Geneve with 50 pts.  Rounding out the top five were SN Rolloise in 4th place with 52 pts and YC Bielersee in 5th place with 53 pts.  Did we say this was close?? Wow, a hiccup would have cost you the entire regatta!   Follow the Swiss J/70 Sailing League here   For more Swiss J/70 Sailing League information Add to Flipboard Magazine.