International Six Metre Swiss National Championship 2026 on Lake Geneva - Overall
by International Six Metre Association 18 Jul 07:19 BST
15-17 July 2026
Eric Monnin's SUI100 Duclop has won the Open Championship at the International Six Metre Classic Swiss Championship, after two more races in tricky conditions on Lake Geneva.
Société Nautique de Genève race officer, Yoann Lelièvre, managed to perfectly predict precisely where and when the breeze was going to fill in from throughout the day. After holding the fleet ashore until shortly before 1230 he assembled the collective 50-boat fleet (20 Open and 30 Classic) on the northern race area, where 7-8 knots of northerly breeze had materialised. Then, later in the day, with one race completed, he led the competitors back to the southerly end of the lake where a new breeze from the south materialised right on cue.
In the Classic Championship, Philippe Durr's SUI44 Astrée won the first race of the day, with Osi Paija's FIN80 Astrée III victorious in the second race.
Overnight leader, Violeta Alvarez's GBR57 Erica, sailed consistently with a second and a third over the day to stay at the top of the leaderboard. Second in the standings was Paija's FIN80 Astrée III, with Andrea Bianchedi's ITA43 Dan in third.
However, a late amendment by the race committee posted at 2100, saw the first race thrown out because the winner SUI44 Astrée had finished one minute and 17 seconds outside the time limit.
That change unfortunately left the Classic Championship short of the four races required for a series.
In the Open Fleet, Loic Forestier's SUI77 Junior won the opening race but stumbled in the second race after getting trapped on the wrong side of a large right shift on the first beat. That mistake saw them finish seventeenth and dropped the Swiss crew to third overall.
Meanwhile, despite winning the second race today, an OCS disqualification in the previous race dropped Dieter Schön's IVB145 Momo down to fourth overall.
Second in the Open Championship was Jan Eckert's SUI140 GinkgoToo, after a fourth and a fifth today.
Monnin said his team's ultra-consistent string of results (1,2,2,2) had not come without enjoying a little good fortune over the four-race series.
"We had some luck for sure," he said. "We tried to limit risk as much as we could - but in these conditions that is not always possible. So we were lucky not to fall into the traps. Twice we had bad starts today, but got lucky because we got forced to the favoured side of the course."
Looking ahead to next week's European Championships, Monnin said he felt glad to have had the Swiss Championship to get warmed up.
"I'm still relatively new to this class and I still have a huge amount to learn - so this regatta has been super valuable for us."
Trophies for the 2026 International Six Metre Swiss Championships will be awarded at a prize-giving ceremony on the evening of Saturday, July 18 at the Société Nautique de Genève, prior to the official opening ceremony for the 2026 European Championships.
More information on the event can be found at the official regatta website. Follow the racing each day via live tracker.