After a two-month summer break, the TF35 fleet is ready to race again on Lake Geneva, Switzerland, for the fifth event of the 2024 season, the Les Voiles de Choisi.
Hosted by the Société Nautique Rolloise, the event will be held on the grounds of the Villa Choisi estate from 30 August to 1 September when the six TF35 high-performance one-design foiling catamarans will need to pick up from where they left off back in June when Sails of Change 8 won the 85th Bol d'Or Mirabaud.
Favourites going into this second half of the season are Yann Guichard's Sails of Change 8, who currently leads the 2024 TF35 season, having won both long-distance races (Bol d'Or and the Geneve-Rolle) and the season-opening grand pix in Nyon. Sailing this year with an all-new crew after handing the helm and crew of Sails of Change 10 (was Spindrift) over to mainsail trimmer Duncan Späth, Guichard seems to have found his rhythm with the team as tactician French 49er Olympian Noé Delpech commented: "The chemistry onboard is working really well. We've had a pretty exceptional first half of the season with a new team."
Esteban Garcia's Realteam Sailing, skippered by Jérôme Clerc, has been the dominant force since the TF35s conception, winning the tour in 2021 and 2023. However, a new software upgrade over the winter period smoothed out the boats' performance, and the fleet closed in, with every team capable of winning races. Consistency became the key, and that was how Clerc and tactician Sabatian Col won the TF35 Mies by simply not finishing less than third in every race. "The competition is tough and the bar is set high. We'll have to be creative to stay ahead," Clerc muses.
Bertrand Demole's Ylliam XII—Comptoir Immobilier also seems to be back on track. Their best results so far this season have been a third in Nyon and at the Bol d'Or. Likewise, after putting in hours of winter training during the off-season, Guy de Picciotto's ZEN Too, with Loïc Forestier at the helm, is seeing their hard work pay off with their first podium in the TF35 at the Mies grand prix, followed by a third in the Geneve-Rolle long-distance race. "Our goal is a podium position at the end of the season, so we are happy to take a good step in that direction," explained trimmer Nicolas Berthoud.
For the two newest boats to join the fleet, Julien Firmenich's Ylliam 17 team came close to a podium finish at the Bol d'Or Mirabaud, missing out on third place by just seven seconds, and Duncan Späth's Sails of Change 10 showed their potential with a fourth place in the TF35 Mies Cup.
The opening day of Les Voiles de Choisi will be Friday 30 August with racing from 11:30 local time. Find out more visit www.tf35.org
