Photo: © Loris von Siebenthal – myimage.ch
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Ernesto Bertarelli’s D35 Alinghi whipped into Geneva Saturday afternoon to complete the Bol d’Or sailing race in a record 6 hours 25 minutes. The previous D35 category record had stood since 2004 when Zebra 7 finished in just under 9 hours.
Bertarelli’s craft, one of a number of his boats named Alinghi, took the lead at the outset and never let up, winning a tough race fought out with 25 knot winds and high waves at Le Bouveret, the eastern end of the lake, on a cold, rainy Saturday. The top four boats crossed the finish line within 10 minutes of Alinghi’s arrival.
Runners-up after Alinghi’s 16:25 finish were: Foncia, with Michel Desjoyeaux; Ylliam, with Arnaud Psarofaghis, and Okalys-Corum, with Loïck Peyron.
Hydroptère fast, but not consistently so
One of the much-awaited shows of the race, Europe’s largest inland sailing competition, was Alain Thébault’s Hydroptère, which had trouble getting going, then put on a fine show at high speeds along the shores of Evian before eventually pulling out of the race.
14:30, the race viewed from above Lutry: more than 500 boats joined the Bol d'Or in 2011
Travel bargains, solar panels, antimatter detectors, flying boats and an all-new old solar system!
Hydroptere.ch unveiled near Lausanne: prototype for world's fastest sailboat (photo ©2010 Gilles Martin-Raget)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Lake Geneva region has been showing its mettle in science and high tech areas this week. The world’s fastest sailboat project unveiled its new prototype, an entrepreneur has won a major award for his travel bargain’s online database, the region’s largest solar panels park has begun soaking up the sun and an unusual new solar system has been found by a team led by Geneva scientists. And Cern packed off a hulking antimatter detector to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where it will join the final shuttle in the US space programme.
World’s fastest sailboat, Hydroptere, unveils new prototype, soon sailing on Lake Geneva
Alain Thebault, Hydroptere founder, pilot (photo ©2010 Gilles Martin-Raget)
Hydroptere.ch was unveiled 23 August in Ecublens. The sailboat is a water-borne lab that will soon be put into Lake Geneva. It is a prototype for Hydroptère maxi “whose purpose is to beat the most famous oceanic records and to follow Jules Verne’s vision: Flying around the planet”, says Alain Thébault, founder and project pilot. The project is working closely with EPFL, the polytechnic institute in Lausanne.
Hydroptère made sailing milestones in 2009 when the 60-foot trimaran became the fastest sailing craft in the world, beating two absolute sailing speed records: 51.36 knots (95 km/h) over 500 metres and 50.17 knots (93 km/h) over one nautical mile.
Thébault told a press conference early in the week that “The objective of this hybrid sailing boat is versatility. Sailing nearly as fast as Archimedean traditional boats and achieving higher speeds in flight. First on Lake Geneva, then in the Mediterranean and abroad, l’Hydroptère.ch should give answers to precise questions related to flight dynamics and she will be an ambassador of the cross-frontier collaboration.”
Unusual new solar system found sparks “a new era in exoplanet research”
The planetary system around the Sun-like star HD 10180 (artist’s impression)
An international research team led by astronomers at the University of Geneva Observatory in Versoix announced Tuesday 24 August they they have uncovered a new solar system with several intriguing features. It has the smallest exoplanet (a planet that orbits a star other than the Earth’s sun) found to date and it has a configuration of planets never seen before, with five Neptune-like planets.
Hydroptere © Gilles Martin-Raget
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The world speed record for a sailboat was claimed by Hydroptère in Hyères, on the the Mediterranean coast, 12 November. The boat, a hydrofoiled trimaran reached 50.17 knots over a nautical mile, 8 November. At one point it reached 55.5 knots (102.78km/h). The boat will be tested on Lake Geneva in 2010, as part of trials for the Hydroptère Maxi, the boat that will attempt to go round the world in 80 days.
Links to other sites: Hydoptere.com
Background: “Hydroptere lab boat moves to shipyards: 2010 for flying boat on Lake Geneva“, 18 April 2009, GenevaLunch
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Hydroptere project to create a world record-breaking flying boat that will go around the world in 40 days is moving from lab phase to boat-building in two locations in Switzerland and France, the group has announced. Drawings were unveiled in Lausanne this week for the lab boat, Hydroptere.ch (see image) which will be a reduced scale version of the final Hydroptere Maxi boat.
Hydroptere, the flying boat: trimarin with hydrofoils
Port-Saint-Louis-du-Rhône, France (GenevaLunch) - Hydroptère, Alain Thébault’s flying boat, a trimarin on hydrofoils that is under development in partnership with EPFL polytechnic in Lausanne, Sunday pushed the sailing speed barrier yet further, marking 61 knots off Napoléon beach at Port-Louis. The boat ended by capsizing in the powerful squall.
