Tuesday 9 June 2009

The "hull-less" boat Mirabaud LX wins a major event on Lake Geneva

The flying monohull Mirabaud LX has won the classic Genève-Rolle-Genève - one of the lake’s most important regattas – in the monohull division and smashed the event’s record ahead of Jo Richards’ prototype.


Mirabaud LX. Image copyright Juerg Kaufmann/Go4Image. All rights reserved.

by Vincent Gillioz

Thomas Jundt, Antoine Ravonel and Eric Gobet have won their first major regatta on board their spectacular hydrofoils 18’footer Mirabaud LX, winning the 32 Miles return-course between Geneva and the town of Rolle in 3 hours 43. Jo Richards and his crew onboard Full Pelt finish two minutes later, whilst Oyster - the fabulous Seb Schmidt prototype - completes the podium 15 minutes later. Mirabaud LX smashes the previous record, held until now by a Psaros 40 in 3h55.


Mirabaud LX. Image copyright Juerg Kaufmann/Go4Image. All rights reserved.

237 boats crossed the starting line at 2:00 PM on 6th June, pushed at great speed by a strong westerly flow. The Mirabaud LX didn’t take a good start, and struggled to find its rhythm in the strong gusts and big chop generated by so many boats. The crew finally started flying, lifted by its hydrofoils and overtaking the fleet at great speed.


Mirabaud LX. Image copyright Juerg Kaufmann/Go4Image. All rights reserved.

The wind blew between 10 and 30 knots throughout the race – a rare occurrence on this lake. Showing fantastic speed and stability, downwind as well as upwind, the Mirabaud LX clearly proved the validity of its concept today, overtaking lake Geneva’s spectacular and expensive carbon fibre prototypes one by one to finally take the lead in sight of the arrival line and win the event with a small margin.


Mirabaud LX. Image copyright Juerg Kaufmann/Go4Image. All rights reserved.

Next week, Thomas Jundt and his team will compete in the famous Bol d’Or Mirabaud. They are not an outsider anymore, and have proven today that their innovative and original technological concept is extremely competitive.


Mirabaud LX. Image copyright Juerg Kaufmann/Go4Image. All rights reserved.

Mirabaud LX

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