Alinghi ready to Rolle

The Décision 35 Championship takes in six different yacht clubs around the lake with a total of eight regattas during the summer series and the Alinghi crew will be racing at them all.
“This series is an invaluable high-level multi-hull training platform that helps us develop our skills towards the 33rd America’s Cup,” says Murray Jones, helmsman for this event.

The Rolle race committee anticipate eight races over the two day regatta and with just one point separating Alinghi from Okalys, the leading boat; the America’s Cup Defender has everything to race for!

Alinghi crew:
Pierre-Yves Jorand, mainsail trimmer
Murray Jones, helmsman
Yves Detrey, bowman
Nils Frei, headsail trimmer
Andrew Graham, trimmer
Tanguy Cariou, tactician

Current ranking:
1st: Okalys – 15pts
2nd: Alinghi – 16 pts
3rd: Foncia – 24pts
4th: Cadence – 33pts
5th: Ladycat – 34pts
6th: Zen Too – 38pts
7th: Smarthome – 44pts
8th: Zebra 7 – 45pts
9th: Julius Baer – 49pts
10th: Romandie.com – 52pts

Alinghi – previous rankings
2004 ranking: 3rd
2005 ranking 2005: 2nd
2006 ranking 2006: 2nd
2007 ranking 2007: 1st

Julius Baer Challenge 2008 programme
2-4 May Grand Prix Chopard SNG
24-25 May Rolle Open SNR
7 June Geneva-Rolle-Geneva YCG
14 June Bol d’Or Mirabaud SNG
30-31 August HP Cup, la Réserve YLSNG/CER
5-7 September Versoix Open CNV
20-21 September Yacht Club Open YCG
3-5 October Beau-Rivage Palace Grand Prix CVV


Background on Rolle
Rolle is a little-visited place roughly midway between Nyon and Lausanne which lies at the heart of the La Côte wine country. Its huge lakeside château, plum in the heart of town, dates from 1270 but is not open to the public. Just offshore – crowned by an obelisk – is the tiny Île de la Harpe, built up in 1835 from earth dumping during construction of the town’s harbour; unfortunately for posterity, the harbour works incorporated a quantity of pre-hewn oak posts which had stood just offshore for as long as anyone could remember – remnants, no doubt, of prehistoric stilt dwellings, destroyed in the name of progress. It’s a tragic irony that shortly afterwards the railway arrived, negating the whole point of building a harbour in the first place. The island, named after local revolutionary and statesman Frédéric-César de la Harpe, is now the focus for Rolle’s active community of yachties, who regularly organize sailing festivals and races around it, often tying up for a fortifying dram or two at the handy midway point.