The Mirabaud Bol d’Or is held in mid-June,but is experienced and prepared throughout the year. For most navigators the Mirabaud Bol d’Or is theguiding thread of the whole season. We have therefore decided to share the event with you until the next start on June 13, 2008.

The Mirabaud Bol d’Or is an exceptional regatta in which exceptional men (and women) participate, on exceptional sailing boats. For this reason you will be able to discover in each edition the Lake Léman celebrities that bringthe race to life, the sailing boats that make or have made the history of the 67 previous events, but also otherraces that are the stuff of

The people who
make the «Bol d’Or»
Christian Wahl

At the age of 48, this father of three children, chief executive of the companies B-J Office and B-J Coffee, is one of the best regatta sailors on Lake Léman. Reputed for his calmness, sense of tactics and precision helmsmanship, Christian Wahl is respected by all sailors, well beyond the lake shores of Switzerland. Like many people, he started sailing on a small family boat. It was only later that he acquired his taste for competition, when he began sailing in a Laser at around the age of 18. Progressing swiftly, he stood out with his good results and very soon began sailing on the international circuit. Next he graduated to a 470, then to a 505, travelling all over Europe to participate in various championships.

In the 1980s he formed a company which represented the famous sailing brand Elvström. The small shop C&C Yachting in the Eaux-Vives district of Geneva was soon to become a benchmark and Christian Wahl got involved in many projects, from the Toucan through the 5.5m JI to the racing multi-hull.

In 1987, together with Dominique Wavre, he was instrumental in the creation of the association that runs the Regatta Training Centre (CER). Subsequently he was to head that body for seven years. During the same period he participated as skipper in several around-France and around-Italy sailing competitions and in three editions of the famous Figaro single-handed race. Christian

Wahl attributes his numerous qualities to his experience at the CER, a dedicated training centre. “Having to train people implies a faultless mastery of one’s subject”. Reputed for his knowledge and ability to analyse the weather conditions - particularly those on Lake Léman -, he developed his working method while at the CER. “I was a good helmsman, a good adjuster and a good technician thanks to my occupation in sail-making, but I lacked the ability to analyse the weather conditions. I began to work with Bernard Dunand in particular. I was on the right track. Today it would be inconceivable to sail without a highly-developed analytical method”.

Following his spell at the CER, Christian Wahl returned to a more conventional type of job but continues to sail at the highest level with Ernesto Bertarelli on his lake projects, the Alinghi multi-hulls. Since 1997 he has been a member of the crews that dominate the Lake Léman regattas, a co-helmsman and on-board tactics expert.

The «Bol d’Or»
racing boats
The Amethyst

The Amethyst was the first sailing boat to put an end to eight years of supremacy of the Toucans. The Amethyst was the brainchild of Jean Grobety. This Vaudois dentist, the father of six children, engaged in architecture and naval construction as a hobby. “When one’s working area is barely one square metre large, one needs something else to maintain a good balance”, he tells us today from the ripe old age of 85 years.

The Amethyst was designed with the intention of copying a Toucan. “I sought to design something that would come close to it.” Being determined to build his boat in fabricated aluminium, the implementational constraints required him to use special shapes which finally gave rise to this very special sailing boat.

First of all, Jean Grobety made a model with which he conducted tests in a hydraulics laboratory of the Swiss Federal Institute of