With the 70th edition of the Bol d’Or Mirabaud presented by Girard Perregaux finished two months ago, the sailing season is at its height in all of the Lake Geneva clubs. Between the various championships, one-design races, cruises, and single-handed and endurance races, enthusiasts have been very busy over the entire summer sailing at their own personal level and according to their individual aspirations.

On the other side of the Atlantic, the New York Supreme Court indicated to the SNG that the America’s Cup conflict was finally headed towards resolution. The relief was short-lived however, as the subsequent appeal lodged a few days later put off the

The people who
make the «Bol d’Or»
Michel Vaucher

Well-known for his stalwart character, Michel Vaucher is one of Lake Geneva’s top regatta sailors. Designer and associate with Gautier sails in Morges, he has been on the podiums of regional, national and international sailboat races for over two decades.

His relatively classic sailing history began, as is often the case, on the family sailboat. He then moved on to Optimists and Lasers, centreboard boats that took up most of the young racer’s free time.

Next, he joined different sailing crews on keelboats like the Corel 45 and the Melges 24, notably for world championship regattas.

The sailor from canton Vaud also tried out an open-ocean racing experience by competing in the Lorient – Saint-Barthélemy double-handed Transat AG2R with Christian Wahl. A ruptured stay unfortunately put an end to this effort at the Azores.

Very active for several years on the world match racing circuit, he achieved an excellent best ranking of 38th.

In the late 90s, thanks to his skills in the discipline he joined Marc Pajot’s team, a challenger in the most prestigious match racing regatta in the world, the America’s Cup.

He then spent nearly a year in Auckland, New Zealand, as genoa trimmer with the Fast 2000 team during

the Louis Vuitton Cup. The Swiss challenge had only mitigated success, but Michel Vaucher considers the experience to have been particularly enriching nonetheless.

Freely admitting that he «doesn’t like to lose», he also knows that this character trait can make life hard for him at times. Indeed, victory isn’t always to be had and coping with disappointments isn’t his cup of tea.

He finds his strength and will to win nonetheless through this process, which he has learned to manage better over time. When asked about his best results, he cites his victories in the three Bols d’Or during the same year (on Lake Neuchâtel, Lac de Joux and of course Lake Geneva). «Even Russell Coutts hasn’t done that yet,» he says humorously.

Without a doubt, his second place overall and M2 category win in the 2008 Bol d’Or Mirabaud constitutes a new reference point in his enviable career.

The «Bol d’Or» Mirabaud racing boats
The Ventilo M2

Conceived in 2004, the first Ventilo M2 boats hit the water in the spring of 2005. Light (420 kg), racy and relatively inexpensive, these high-end catamarans appealed to regatta sailors from all horizons from the moment they were brought to market. The arrival of the Décision 35 craft during the previous year probably acted as a catalyst in the genesis of the project. The giant Lake Geneva boats, in spite of their qualities, remained overly expensive and consequently elitist, inspiring the creation of a more affordable vessel.

Rodolphe Gautier, up-and-coming lawyer as well as regatta enthusiast and member of the Cercle de la Voile of the Société Nautique de Genève, had the idea along with boat builder Christian Favre to invent a new series that could be characterised as high tech, simple, fast, and above all «fun». After a three-month gestation and development period, the Ventilo M2 concept