Ylliam XII - Comptoir Immobilier claims 87th Bol d'Or du Léman amid controversy
by TF35 Trophy 7 Jun 15:57 BST
6 June 2026
87th Bol d'Or du Léman © Loris von Siebenthal / Mateo Giraud / Bol d’Or du Léman
After 11 hours and 48 minutes of racing, Bertrand Demole's Ylliam XII - Comptoir Immobilier crossed the finish line first in the 87th Bol d'Or du Léman. But instead of the customary fireworks and celebrations that accompany victory in Switzerland's most iconic sailing race, the team found itself at the centre of a controversy.
Ylliam XII had been disqualified for changing its crew after the registration deadline. Yet by the following morning, the Jury had overturned the decision, citing a technical error in the way the disqualification had been processed.
As a result, the celebrations on Saturday night belonged to Marco Favale's X-Wing. Awarded the victory on the dock, the team enjoyed the champagne spray and the spotlight of the main stage, believing they had won the Bol d'Or du Léman. For one night at least, they basked in the glory of victory.
"Despite the finish we really had enormous fun taking part in this Bol d'Or in exceptional conditions," explained Ylliam XII - Comptoir Immobilier's Jeremy Bachelin. "Throughout the race, I think we stayed among the front-runners and managed the situation well. We also enjoyed a wonderful finish to the race, flying back up the lake with the sunset behind us and crossing the finish line just at dusk. It was magnificent."
Ahead of the race, the forecast looked light but promising, with sunshine and predominantly south-westerly winds expected on Saturday before a transition to thermal breezes overnight and into Sunday.
"We had looked at the routing from the 2018 Bol d'Or, which was also raced in south-westerly conditions, and those conditions had favoured the Swiss shore. The first ten boats all went that way that year. So we thought it was a likely scenario and decided to stay on that side," explained X-Wing tactician Nicolas Charbonnier.
With memories of last weekend's windless Genève-Rolle still fresh, crews arrived on the start line determined to stay positive despite just four knots of breeze. By the time the fleet reached Versoix, however, the wind had built to 10 knots, lifting the TF35s onto their foils and sending them racing towards Saint-Prex.
Sailing closest to the Swiss shore, Ylliam XII - Comptoir Immobilier, Ylliam 17 and X-Wing established an early advantage, although the rest of the fleet closed the gap as they entered the Grand Lac.
Off Morges, the breeze softened once again, dropping to around five knots and compressing the TF35 fleet. Forced off their foils and back into displacement mode, the leaders suddenly found themselves vulnerable as the chasing Bol d'Or fleet closed in. Among those making rapid gains was Nicolas Grange's Décision 35,Okalys.
By Lausanne, with just three knots of breeze remaining, Ylliam 17, Realteam Spirit and Sails of Change 10 broke away from the boats hugging the Swiss shoreline and headed towards the shorter, more central route across the lake. But the further they pushed towards Le Bouveret and into the Haut-Lac, the lighter the wind became until the fleet eventually ground to a halt at the turning mark.
"We had wind right from the start and then made rapid progress foiling all the way to the middle of the Grand Lac. There, the wind completely disappeared," explained Sails of Change 8 helm Yann Guichard.
"We chose to go around via the Swiss shore, which was the longer option. At that point we were sailing with X-Wing and Zen, and I think it was probably the right choice. But we got stuck for a while and they managed to slip around us. We weren't able to get going again and missed that transition. As a result, we found ourselves quite a long way behind.
"It was a difficult Bol d'Or, but that's also what makes the Bol d'Or what it is."
After spending almost two hours parked in the same patch of water, Ylliam XII - Comptoir Immobilier was first to round the mark. Yet somehow, finding momentum where there appeared to be none, X-Wing emerged from the drift and edged into the lead. Zen Too rounded third ahead of Ylliam 17, while Realteam Spirit led Sails of Change 8 and Sails of Change 10 around the mark.
For the return leg to Geneva, a westerly breeze filled in off Lausanne and transformed the race. Back on their foils and racing in around 10 knots of wind, the TF35s were once again touching 20 knots of boat speed, with X-Wing leading the charge.
If the outward journey to Le Bouveret had taken seven painstaking hours, the trip home was a very different story. Once established on their foils, the fleet blasted back down the lake in just two and a half hours.
The final approach to Geneva produced one last twist. The breeze faded again in the closing kilometres, and although X-Wing had led throughout the entire second half of the race, Ylliam XII - Comptoir Immobilier found just enough pressure in the dying metres to overhaul its rival and cross the finish line first. X-Wing followed in second, with Ylliam 17 third.
Like Ylliam XII - Comptoir Immobilier, Ylliam 17 was also disqualified on crossing the finish line, only to have its result later reinstated.
The Jury's final ruling confirmed Ylliam XII - Comptoir Immobilier as the winner of the 87th Bol d'Or du Léman. X-Wing takes a highly respectable second place, with Ylliam 17 completing the podium in third. Realteam Spirit finished fourth, followed by Sails of Change 8 in fifth. Zen Too crossed sixth ahead of Sails of Change 10, which had spent the longest time trapped in the notorious Le Bouveret wind hole.
"The Bol d'Or remains a hugely important event in Switzerland,"said Charbonnier."We are a new team and to perform so well, this is really special. And it's a difficult race: it's long, there are so many uncertainties, and the lead changes hands constantly. So when things go your way, even just a little, it's an incredibly rewarding feeling."