Bol d'Or start 2010 (photo ©2010 Loris von Siebenthal)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – One of the most beautiful sailing races of the year takes place this weekend, with 500 boats and 3,000 sailors rlunning the Bol d’Or from Geneva to the other end of the lake and back.
The race starts Saturday 18 June from the Société Nautique de Genève, with a weather forecast that promises some unpredictable moments, with sunshine, cloudy skies and rain all part of the mix.
The race features real time online mapping, a new feature this year. Another change: the race finishes at 17:00 Sunday, an hour later, to allow more racers to finish.
BMW-Oracle says Alinghi's sails not made in Switzerland
Update 18:35 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – America’s Cup challenger BMW-Oracle and defender Alinghi are set to go back to court in New York after negotiations broke down in Singapore 12 January. The two sailing teams and their boats are in Valencia, Spain to contest sailing’s oldest and most prestigious race, a best of three meets that begins 8 February. Final details of the rules for the races are under discussion, but a sticking point lately has been the source of Alinghi’s sails.
BMW-Oracle maintains that Alinghi’s sail, made in the USA, violates the Deed of Gift’s stipulation that the boat be entirely built in the country the team represents, in this case Switzerland, home of the Société Nautique de Genève (SNG). The Deed of Gift is the document that lays down the ground rules for the 159-year-old race. Alinghi says bluntly that BMW-Oracle has it wrong.
Alinghi to race in Valencia
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Alinghi sailing team will face its challenger BMW-Oracle in Valencia, Spain, in the best of three races in February 2010. Société Nautique de Genève (SNG), the Geneva, Switzerland sailing club that Alinghi represents, says that the Golden Gate Yacht Club, which is represented by BMW-Oracle, has not replied to its suggestion a week ago that the race be held in waters off the east coast of Australia. Thus the only other venue open to it legally, in order to comply with the February date, is Valencia.
BMW-Oracle with mast, photo by Gilles Martin-Raget
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Team Alinghi has suggested a venue for the 33rd America’s Cup race with challenger BMW-Oracle off the coast of Australia, in order “unlock” the race and “return the competition to the water”. The announcement 5 November comes a day before a hearing in the New York Supreme Court scheduled to determine whether Alinghi’s favoured venue in Ras al-Khaimah, United Arab Emirates will be upheld by the court.
Justice Shirley Kornreich had ruled 27 October that Alinghi must choose a southern hemisphere location or Valencia, Spain for the race in February. The ongoing legal battle between the two teams threatened to postpone the actual race. Alinghi appealed that decision.
Where the race will be decided. ©NARAL
Geneva, Switzerland and New York, USA (GenevaLunch) – Team Alinghi, representing the Société Nautique de Genève in the 33rd America’s Cup race, has announced it will appeal the decision by Justice Shirley Kornreich of the New York Supreme Court to deny Alinghi the right to defend its title in Ras al-Khaimah (RAK), United Arab Emirates, in February 2010.
Kornreich had ruled 27 October that the race be held in the southern hemisphere or in Valencia, Spain, basing her decision on the terms of the “Deed of Gift” which stipulates that the race be held in the southern hemisphere between 1 November and 1 May.
Alinghi in less contentious waters. Photo: © Dinah Roberts
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The oldest, most prestigious sailing competition may be decided in a New York courtroom instead of in the Persian Gulf waters off the Arabian peninsula. The defending team Alinghi, representing Geneva’s Société Nautique de Genève (SNG) put their huge catamaran into the water off Ras al-Khaimah (RAK), United Arab Emirates Saturday 17 October, but a New York judge must still decide whether the venue, traditionally chosen by the defender, may be allowed to stand.
On Saturday, Ernesto Bertarelli, the billionaire backer of Alinghi, called on the BMW-Oracle team to get down to business and start sailing.
Alinghi 5, warming up to the America's Cup 2010, in Genoa, Italy 17 August 2009 (© 2009 Carlo Borlenghi/Alinghi)
Geneva, Switzerland/New York, USA (GenevaLunch) - The details of the boat BMW will be sailing in the 2010 America’s Cup race do not have to be divulged until two weeks before the race, a judge in New York has said.
The New York Supreme Court announced a verdict 22 September that went against the Société Nautique de Genève, home to the Alinghi team, and holder of the America’s Cup sailing trophy. It rejected Alinghi’s claim to disqualify the Oracle team from the 2010 America’s Cup race because, Alinghi told the court, the Golden Gate Yacht Club, represented by Oracle, had not provided, by the deadline, the required technical details concerning Oracle’s boat. The court agreed with Oracle, which had argued that a boat undergoes constant technical modifications until the moment it begins to compete.
In her ruling, Supreme Court Judge Shirley Kornreich nevertheless scolded the Oracle team for “unsportsmanlike behaviour” which “resulted in substantially reducing SNG’s (Société Nautique de Genève) advantage as originally contemplated by the Deed of Gift.”
BMW Oracle 90 foot trimaran, sea trials in Washington, USA, 13 August 2009. Photographer: Gilles Martan-Raget
Both teams remain committed to begin the race in February 2010.
The judge’s decision comes on the heels publication of a previously confidential agreement between SNG and the International Sailing Federation (ISAF).
Coming into Nyon, surrounded by small craft (Photo: © Dinah Roberts)
Click on images to view larger
Nyon, Vaud, and Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The crowds lined up along the shores of Lake Geneva to see the giant catamaran that represents the America’s Cup holder, Alinghi 5, Saturday 1 August.
The small boats that were invited to accompany it as it sailed from Lausanne to Geneva before it moves on to the open seas, struggled to keep up whenever it put on speed.
Its destination: Geneva, where Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey had just stepped off the plane from a meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington, DC.
Alinghi tears away from Nyon, heading for Geneva (photo: ©2009 Dinah Roberts)
The Swiss cabinet member welcomed the new boat to its home base, the Société Nautique de Genève.
Di Roberts, who lives near Nyon, said watching the boat was “fantastic” but the crowd in Nyon groaned as one of the large steamboats came into port just as as Alinghi sailed past their ready cameras. And as it sailed out, picking up speed and leaving smaller craft behind, the lake police had to come to the rescue of people on small paddleboats who were unprepared for the enormous wash Alinghi 5 leaves in its wake.
Background: “Alinghi 5, ahhh, what a beauty of a boat!”, 26 July, GenevaLunch feature
Alinghi 5 in Geneva, jet d'eau fountain, image ©2009 Guido Trombetta/Alinghi
Alinghi 5, Ernesto Bertarelli, president of Alinghi, Micheline Calmy-Rey, Swiss foreign minister and Fred Mayer, vice-commodore of the SNG in Geneva, image ©2009 Guido Trombetta/Alinghi
Alinghi 5, image ©2009 Guido Trombetta/Alinghi
Alinghi 5 sailing first time, 20 July 2009
Photos, ©Carlo Borlenghi/Alinghi (click on images to view larger)
Le Bouveret, Valais, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The long-awaited new Alinghi sailcraft hit the water at the eastern end of Lake Geneva today to much excitement: the weather was glorious, and legal tussles faded into the background as the magnificent-looking boat had its maiden sail. The Swiss America’s Cup Defender, Alinghi 5, was watched by hundreds of spectators as it went out on Lake Geneva, Switzerland, for the first time at noon, Monday 20 July.
The boat is a 90 foot multihull which took 100,000 man-hours to build. It was put on the lake 9 July and its first foray onto the lake today was in a light 5-7 ESE ‘Vauderon’, according to the Swiss weather service, Meteoswiss.
Strategist Murray Jones, who is running the trials on the new boat, said afterwards:
Alinghi celebrates its America's Cup win, July 2007
New York, NY, USA (GenevaLunch) – A court in New York will ask the Société Nautique de Genève (SNG), home to Alinghi, to show cause why it should not be held in contempt of court, at the request of The Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC) of San Francisco, California, the GGYC announced 14 July. The GGYC also accused the Swiss sailing club, in its press release, of entering “into a secret agreement with the International Sailing Federation, the organization which will have a central role in selecting match officials and sailing jury.”
This is the fourth time since the last America’s Cup race, in July 2007, that the GGYC is taking the Société Nautique de Genève (SNG), notes Alinghi. The SNG, in its reply press release, limits itself to accusing the other club of fighting in the courts rather than on water and saying it continues to wait for the other club to supply the court with required documents. Both groups claim to have court decisions on their side.
Vesenaz, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Green Party in Geneva and its allies collected over 8,700 signatures required to force a referendum on the construction of a tunnel under the village of Vesenaz, the financing of which was approved by the cantonal parliament in May 2009. The issue will now be put on the ballot in November 2009 at the earliest. Some 30,000 cars a day drive through the village of Vesenaz, on the left bank, to reach Geneva.
Societe Genevoise de Navigation, alongside Genève Plage
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Approximately 3000 sailors on 550 sailing boats are set to race the 71st edition of the Bol d’Or Mirabaud, the biggest freshwater regatta in the world, Saturday 13 June and Sunday 14 June on Lake Geneva. It starts at 10:00 Saturday at the Société nautique de Genève, next to Genève Plage, and covers the extent of the lake to Le Bouveret on the Valais shore. And back. About 150km as the wind takes you. Big names in the world of sailing, like Ernesto Bertarelli, the owner of Alinghi, and Michel Desjoyeaux, winner of the Vendée Globe 2008/09 competition, compete with rank amateurs.
The action is accessible all along the lake. For the stay-at-homes, there will be photos of the event on skippers.tv in the afternoon. Minute-by-minute updates can be seen on the bol d’or site.
Alinghi relaunch, 2008
San Francisco, California, USA and Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Your average non-sailor might be forgiven for thinking America’s Cup is a game of ping-pong rather than arguably the world’s most famous sailing race. The legal battle between the Société Nautique de Genève (SNG), home to Alinghi, and US-based Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC), home to Oracle, continues, with the GGYC asking a court in New York for a new hearing, set for 15 May. Alinghi is the holder of the America’s Cup and Oracle is the official Challenger. Last week, 24 April, the Tribune de Geneve carried the cheerful headline that Alinghi had agreed to Oracle’s demand for a multi-hull race in 2010. For about an hour it appeared that the bickering might be over and a race could be run.
BMW Oracle 90 foot trimaran, sea trials in Washington, USA, in September 2008. Photographer: Gilles Martan-Raget
San Francisco, USA and Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC) has formally offered to end the months-old litigation in US courts against the Société Nautique de Genève (SNG), home to Alinghi, if the SNG will accept a multi-hull race under rules similar to those of the 2007 America’s Cup and with GGYC sailing in the race.
