YANN GUICHARD combines Olympic finesse with offshore experience

By winning everything last year, the helmsman of Sails of Change 8 became the benchmark for Bol d’Or favorites.

Bol d’Or, Genève-Rolle-Genève and season victory. Last year, the TF35 Sails of Change 8 achieved the sailing version of the hat-trick. This is the second time this has happened, if we consider the 2016 season, raced then under the Ladycat name. It’s not easy, then, for Yann Guichard to set a goal other than “maintaining the level” in 2025. The skipper puts winning the Bol d’Or at the top of his list of goals. With five victories since the creation of the team, he knows full well that it takes not only skill, but also “a bit of success” to win the most popular of Lake Geneva’s major races. A fine helmsman and record-breaker, Yann Guichard grew up on Île aux Moines, the largest island in the Gulf of Morbihan. The Franco-Swiss skipper adds to his Olympic skills a solid background as an ocean racer. It’s a dual ability that naturally leads him to shine in our Bol d’Or.

The Sails of Change team, formerly Spindrift and Ladycat, has two TF35s in the race. The two units benefit from “joint reflection on technical optimizations”. But each crew has its own sporting independence. Yann Guichard skippers number 8. Number 10 has been helmed since last year by the young Duncan Späth, son of team boss Dona Bertarelli. In his first season at the helm, Duncan Späth has achieved his first objectives: to move from the role of crew member to that of skipper, and to take charge of the management of his project. In 2025, the rookie will probably pull out his claws and try to win a major race, or even reach the season’s podium. His crew is the only one to have undergone a change within the team, with the departure of Xavier Revil, replaced by Julien d’Ortoli. For Yann Guichard, it’s also “consistency and stability” that are the strength of the Sails of Change team as a whole. On the 8, the sailors won’t be changing. Noé Delpech in charge of tactics, François Morvan on the mainsail, Bruno Mourniac trimming the headsails, Adrien Mestre on the foredeck and Solune Robert on the winch – the long-serving lieutenants on board at the start of the Bol d’Or. The team is well established. Fourth in the Tornado class at the Sydney Olympics (2000), Yann Guichard has a wealth of experience as an ocean racer. He is also the skipper of the largest racing trimaran ever built: 37 meters long, 23 meters wide and 40 meters long. It was with this giant that he achieved the third fastest time around the world, as part of the 2015-2016 Jules Verne Trophy. His wife, Dona Bertarelli, is the co-founder of the stable. She was on the boat. She holds the women’s round-the-world record of 47 days, 10 hours and 49 minutes.

Back in the water this spring, the maxi-trimaran will this year focus on finding solutions to avoid collisions with UFOs, particularly cetaceans, at high speeds. Trials of new equipment will be carried out, along with tests and data collection, continuing the work begun several years ago. While 2025 is still dedicated to this research project, from 2026 the Sails of Change team aims to reconcile sporting performance and scientific commitment.