In spite of a rather dreary start to spring, the sailing season is slowly coming back to life on the lake. Boats on trailers and under tarpaulins are being moved back to their moorings. Boatyards are beginning to work overtime and sailmakers are trying to meet deadlines. Everybody wants to get their boat on the water and be ready to sail as soon as the sun finally comes out.

Racers used the change to daylight savings to set weekly (or more) team training sessions for the coming race season. Cruisers take advantage of these April weekends to do the innumerable small yet essential tasks for getting their craft shipshape. For its third issue,

The people who
make the «Bol d’Or»
Antonio Palma

Limited Partner of Mirabaud Cie, private bankers, Antonio
Palma represents the title sponsor of the largest
closed-water regatta in Europe. A passionate sailor, he has participated in some fifteen editions of the race on different
types of boats.

He fully intends to cross the starting line this coming June 14th on a Mirabaud Surprise. For this purpose, he trains on board every week with the Mirabaud crew and skipper Cyrus Golchan.

He doesn’t consider Mirabaud’s commitment to the Bol d’Or
as an impulse decision: “We see this partnership as
the result of our wish to
pursue an objective in common with the Société Nautique
de Genève. Searching for the best solution, it was
the Bol d’Or that naturally imposed itself.”

Already the principal sponsor since 2005, Mirabaud became
the title sponsor of the race in 2007. Antonio Palma explains that this role gives him greater overall responsibility with regard to the event: “Our personal commitment is much deeper than before.
One doesn’t entrust the name of a bank and a family without following
the event very closely. We owe it to ourselves to be completely present.»

When asked if Mirabaud’s commitment to the Bol d’Or corresponds to a sailing-oriented strategy,

Mr. Palma answers without hesitation, “Sailing has
many parallels with finance, which is certainly one of
the reasons that led us to
invest in the sport. The similarities between the two worlds can be demonstrated
by noting first of all the presence of an identical
body of water for all, comparable to financial markets.

The conditions
on the other hand can differ according to one’s position, again reflecting the image
of the bank. Therefore, everyone must observe changing conditions as well
as competitors’ strategies
in order to get positioned
at the right spot and reap
the benefits.» In view
of these resemblances,
Mr. Palma quips further that
“I feel like I’m on a boat when I’m in my office!»

The «Bol d’Or»
racing boats
The Surprise

The Surprise has been an essential component of the Swiss nautical landscape and its lakes for many than thirty years. Designed by naval architect Michel Joubert in 1976, the sailboat can be termed a stroke of genius. Indeed, this 7.45m cabin sailboat built for rapid cruising has never gone out of style and its sales have not dropped in 25 years.

Since its arrival on the Swiss market, the little keelboat has won great popularity. Relatively inexpensive with a list price of CHF 22,000 when it first came out, fast and attractive, sailboat racers adopted it straight away. The first owners’ association was formed in Switzerland in 1978 and the one-design class was created the same year.

Thirty-nine Surprises were to be seen on the starting line of the first European Championship organized by the Geneva Yacht Club in 1979. The record number of participants was at a Swiss championship in 1989 in Nyon, where 72 competitors