all, it will keep us competing throughout the summer on interesting courses – a mix of coastal raids and windward- leeward courses. And most importantly, there are no fewer than 30 teams including most of the big names, so the boats might not be very exciting but the racing will definitely be intense and spectacular.’
The fleet for the next Tour de France will indeed be hugely competitive, with names such as Cammas, Desjoyeaux, Beyou, Riou, Lemonchois, Coville… Guichard and his team’s goal is nevertheless clear and ambitious: ‘We are here to win.’ The one-design aspect of the fleet has undoubtedly set the bar high: ‘It’s quite simple, we are not allowed to do anything to the boats. Even the sails, built by EuropSails, are one-design. It’s therefore really the teams who will make the difference.’ And perhaps the reliability of the boats? ‘It’s true, this is a new class,’ admits Guichard. ‘These boats have been designed to ease access to multihull sailing for amateur sailors. We will sail completely differently, and push quite hard. It will be interesting to see how the boats stand up to a month of intense racing.’
Yann Guichard plans to rotate his crew through the summer to give everyone a chance to race. ‘We want as many team members as possible to be involved. For us it is a good team- building exercise. We can’t just take the maxi trimaran Spindrift 2 for a spin; it’s a pretty complex operation… On the other hand, we can go out and train on the Diam 24 for a couple of hours at any time of day. It’s very practical.’ Parallel to the Tour de France à la Voile, Spindrift Racing carry on preparing their monster trimaran for the round-the- world attempt. The team will also compete on Lake Geneva’s Décision 35 circuit, as well as on the GC32 circuit. ‘Sailing in so many different classes will obviously be demanding from a technical point of view, but we believe that the future of yacht racing is in flying multihulls and we want to get up to speed.’
A century-old passion
Mirabaud’s brand is already well known on the pontoons throughout the world, among other things for the banking and financial group’s support of Yann Guichard’s Spindrift offshore maxi trimaran (second in the latest Route du Rhum), sailor Dominique Wavre (seventh in the last Vendée Globe), the Mirabaud LXfoiler or the Mirabaud Yacht Racing Image award.
However, it is a less known fact that the
group – and its founding family – have been involved in yacht racing for over a century. Since 1888, according to the archives, where you can find a picture of the Seven-Tonner Squaw... the property of Ivan Mirabaud. Squaw was arguably one of Lake Geneva’s first real racing boats.
Ivan Mirabaud’s Seven-Tonner Squawon Lake Geneva in 1888
Born in 1850, Ivan Mirabaud was the great-grandfather of Yves Mirabaud, one of today’s five managing partners of the group that bears the family name and current chairman of the board. He is probably the key figure in terms of generating this long passion for yacht racing.
Ivan’s direct descendants were well known on the shores of the lake for their beautiful raceboats all bearing the name Fly – no fewer than six examples of which were raced actively. Further down the family tree, one also discovers typical lake boats such as the 6.5m Hoccos, the 15m SNS as well as a Two Tonner.
Today Mirabaud perpetuates the family tradition by supporting some of the world’s best sailors and most exciting projects such as Spindrift Racing, alongside the popular Bol d’Or Mirabaud. Indeed a century-old tradition. Bernard Schopfer
q
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graeme@seahorse.co.uk SEAHORSE 7
Technical Brief
ELOI STICHELBAUT/SPINDRIFT RACING
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