Some five hundred boats start off Geneva and sail the length of Lake Geneva to Le Bouveret and back — 123 kilometres — in what is described as the largest regatta on closed water anywhere. The fastest multihulls finish in under six hours; the slowest monohulls take more than a day.
No attendance figure is collected in this pass.
The lake's geography makes it a tactical race rather than a fast one: the wind funnels along the Rhône valley at one end and dies in the middle on a hot afternoon, and crews have drifted for hours within sight of the finish.
Watching is free from anywhere on the shore. The start off the Jet d'Eau, with 500 boats on one line, is the part worth setting an alarm for.
PlanningA mid-June weekend; around 500 boats, free to watch from any point on the lake shore.