A huge adventure of rare intensity, the 5 Days of Lake Geneva took place at the end of July, with stormy weather and strong fronts. Five days and nights on the water, non-stop and unassisted, an adventure made up of endurance, determination and a touch of madness. And in the end, Petit Tabac wins!
“It takes courage to make this long journey”, as the old sailor’s song goes. The participants in the 5 jours du Léman are passionate, hard-working and courageous. And it takes courage to cover the equivalent of seven Bols d’Or Mirabaud in one week, without stopovers or assistance. In a word, the participants in this lake marathon never gave up, and in the leading group, they held on right to the end in this very hectic edition, to say the least. As soon as the finish line was crossed off the port of Vidy, the faces of the competitors were marked. They were all very tired at the end of this 31st edition, which had been very testing, as race director Hubert Telfser explained: “The week’s weather menu was very heavy. The fronts broke over the race course. Most of the competitors are used to a storm, but it’s quite unusual to have four or five in two days. Especially as the first one hit in the middle of the night and was very strong. The very rough weather at the start of the race weighed on the morale of some and destroyed a lot of equipment. To sum up, we had nine retirements in the first 24 hours.
New arrivals
Of the 32 Surprise crews who lined up at the start of the event on Sunday July 23, only 23 completed the course around the lake. A succession of loops: Vidy, Geneva, Bouveret, Vidy… and so on. A new feature: “This year, we decided to open up participation to the Grand Surprise. Including another class of boat allows us to demonstrate the capacity of the five-day event to adapt to future developments”, explains Hubert Telfser. Five boats lined up for the start, and there was one withdrawal in this category. For the record, the 5 jours du Léman is a true endurance race. It’s the world’s biggest double-handed race, in enclosed waters and without assistance. The objective of the 5 jours du Léman is simple: in a limited time span of five days, the aim is to complete as many circumnavigations of the lake as possible aboard one-design Surprise yachts, and since this year, Grand Surprise yachts. The boats are fitted with beacons that enable the public to follow them 24 hours a day in real time. A sporting event, but above all an extraordinary human adventure.
A contact race
Julien Brunet and Frank Reinhardt, smiling and happy winners of this 31st edition of the Five Days of Lake Geneva, admit to having had a bit of luck and also to having forced their fate a little. A great feat for the two long-time friends, who have known each other since they were 15: “It was a big edition, and in terms of conditions, it was incredible. We did seven descents of the lake or… climbs! We went upwind in the west seven times in a row. And not once in anything other than a steady westerly wind. We did have a couple of good, solid storms, but we got through them pretty well, with no breakages! We sailed a race pretty much as we’d imagined it, and then you need a bit of success too. Winning is impossible without that,” says Julien Brunet. “Basically, we were never in front, we were always a bit behind the pack. It didn’t matter, we weren’t too far behind and we tried to come back. We were in the lead at the prologue, but after the first night we were wallowing, so we came 22nd at Le Bouveret”, Reinhardt also explains.
“The start of the race didn’t go entirely as we’d planned, but it made us want to hang on and the fun remained throughout. We were convinced that we could come back and finish at least in second place, as we had the impression that the first had gone a long way ahead. The conditions were tough throughout, so it was hard to recover. We’re really happy to have won, because we had the impression of playing against solid crews”, concludes Julien Brunet.
Petit Tabac, the pair’s valiant Surprise, crossed the line victorious after covering the distance of 954.8 kilometers. With just a few hours to go before the end of their pensum, six of them were within touching distance of victory. In the end, it was Brunet-Reinhardt’s Petit Tabac who crossed the line in the lead, followed by the Mathieu Sistek-Tugdual Becquemie duo on Sos Oxygène and direct pursuers Marius Lanz and Thomas Lepère on Malice, who secured their place on the podium. Suspense and upheaval were the order of the day! Korteldesign, with Denis Cortella and offshore specialist Pierre Leboucher on board, saw the lead slip cruelly from its grasp after several days in pole position.
Four women’s crews took part in this 31st edition of the event. All were classified, and in the Grand Surprise class it was the duo of Bernard Borter and Yan Perret-Gentil on Savoy Verre-Little Nemo who came out on top.
