The "Criterium de Surprise" took place in Rolle on the first weekend of September. This regatta is part of the 2021 Top Voile Cup championship. Two crews from Luc Voile competed in this regatta!

The weekend begins with a great boat trip, including a night at anchor near the port of Rolle.

On Saturday, participants are in for a great welcome—the forecast calls for light winds, which is great; after five days on Lake Geneva, we’re raring to go!

After an efficient briefing, we headed out onto the water, and the first race got underway in very light winds. Kudos to the race committee.

Communication is good on board, the boat is making good progress, and the battle is fierce as we close in on CER Sofies. In the end, we weren't able to pass them, so we finished in 5th place.

Then the wind died down completely, and it was back to the harbor for a great aperitif. As mentioned during the briefing, in Rolle, it’s just as good on the water as it is on land! Rolle certainly lived up to its reputation, and thanks to Aspro for the support. :)

Here we go again—another night on the boat. You actually sleep really well there, as long as your mattress isn't flat :)

Waking up on site on Sunday, with croissants provided by ASPRO, is pure luxury.

The trend is for light winds this Sunday, too—as soon as the slightest breeze picks up, the race committee starts a race. Awesome!

For the first start of the day, the team—led by its tactician, who may have been a little too ambitious—got caught up in the crowd at the starting line and had a disastrous start. No time to despair—the crew fights back, extricates itself from this tricky situation, and heads out to find some wind. This allows them to move back up to the front of the race after a shrewd analysis of the race course. Then, at the windward mark, we round it in 4th place. And after a downwind leg under spinnaker marked by excellent communication between the tactician, the spinnaker handler, and the helmsman, the crew emerges in 2nd place at the leeward mark. Finally, the wind drops, and the finish will be upwind. The strategy calls for a gybe that will position the boat in first place and allow us to control the rest of the fleet. In the end, a chasing boat that had chosen the far-left route passed us again and edged us out at the finish line; we finished 2nd in this race with a rather conservative tactical approach, and the tactician’s enthusiasm was tempered by the number 1. The wind has died down, so we’re making the most of this vacation-like moment—perfect for a swim. It’s awesome!

Finally, a light breeze picks up from the small lake; the two LUC boats test their limits, and a third and final race gets underway. This time, we get off to a good start; the fleet takes us to the left, but we want to go right, so we try to tack quickly. Unfortunately, this forces us to bear away sharply to pass behind two boats with right of way—mentally, it’s tough. But… It pays off big time. With a tack, we then capitalize on our advantage. We know that at the windward mark there will be a current—not strong, but tricky in these light-wind conditions. So we play it safe, with a quick tack just before the mark to make sure we clear it. The boat chasing us, which is navigating its course with more leeway, is a bit of a threat and is feeling confident. No such luck—he’ll hit the mark, and so will the third-place boat, then the rest of the fleet will crash into the mark. This lets us break away and cross the line in first place. And off we go for another swim! :)

With a little luck, we'll end the weekend just one point behind second place, which puts us in first place for this criterium.

Thank you to the SNR, ASPRO, the race committee, and the staff for this great weekend.

This morning, we’re heading to Rolle! Aboard the trusty LUC Voile 2, Aldo and Pierre are making their final preparations during the transit, and taking a quick swim to clean the hull after sunrise. Nothing better to really wake you up! The rest of the team—Marion, Ozan, and Zoé—arrives by bus. We confirm our registration, unload the engine, and off we go... Will they be able to get a start? The wind lacks energy... Since the course hasn’t been marked yet, it’s a chance for the team to practice maneuvers in light winds—the previous two weeks having been memorably blessed with a good breeze. During this first day of racing, punctuated by swims, we finally manage to complete one race. The line clearly favors port, and a gust seems a bit stronger to starboard. We struggled to move up toward the left edge of the breeze before the start, but it was too late—only a few seconds left to cross the line. So we set a port tack and tried to pick up speed, but we were downwind of another Surprise, and almost all the way to the right. It’s hard to make headway! We’ll anticipate the next start better. Then, little by little, we make up ground, but it’s not enough to make up the difference. Back at the harbor, we’re treated to a little aperitif—just what we need to recharge our batteries for the next day.

On Sunday, coffee and croissants helped pass the time as we waited out the early-morning calm. Another windless training session with LUC Voile 1, sailing on mirror-smooth water, to prepare for this very calm second day. Then two races were started. We got off to a good start in the first one! We focused on keeping up the momentum. But a Grand-Surprise arrived at the leeward mark at the same time as us, and several Surprises took advantage of this opportunity to slip in behind us. Now that we’ve lost quite a few places, there’s no way we’re going to get caught out a second time—we’ll remember this situation! A little later, the start of the third race suggests that everything is going to go well. We have room on the leeward side, no one is covering us, and there’s still time to pick up speed. In theory, that’s not bad, but in practice, this time we just can’t make it work at all. We can’t get going… and the problem persists on the next two upwind legs, despite our efforts to adjust the trim and course. We want to go to starboard. LUC Voile 1 passes us at full speed on the windward side. The wind is shifting a lot; we see competitors hitting the buoy because of the current—we have to stay very alert. Finally, under spinnaker, our speed issues disappear, and we manage to make up a little ground. Ahead of us, a dense cluster of boats is forming near the race committee at the finish line. So we stay alert and narrowly miss the race committee. That’s the end of the races; the wind has died down. Let’s hurry to the awards ceremony—we’ve got our friends to cheer on!

A big thank you to our partners: UNIL-EPFL University Sports / City of Lausanne / Delta Network]