Hydros team breaks Blue Ribbon Lake Geneva record with lHydroptère.ch

Hydros breaks the Blue Ribbon Lake Geneva record © Loris Von Siebenthal / Hydros

On Tuesday afternoon, Hydros broke the Blue Ribbon Lake Geneva record, part of the SYZ & CO Leman Sailing Speed Records, by crossing the lake (Geneva (Port Noir) - le Bouveret - Geneva) in 4 hours and 45 minutes (still subject to the approval of the Cercle de la Voile de la Société Nautique de Genève – the yacht club of the Geneva Nautical Society).

Geneva, Wednesday 21 August 2013 - The flying boat l'Hydroptère.ch, piloted by Daniel Schmäh, broke yesterday the Blue Ribbon record between Port Noir and le Bouveret, with a theoretical distance of 66.5 nautical miles (123 kilometers). It thus beat the time set by Philippe Cardis on Décision 35 in 2007 by eight minutes.

"We had fantastic wind conditions yesterday," explained Daniel Schmäh, skipper of l'Hydroptère.ch. "The wind continued and reached the Haut Lac, which is quite rare and was not the case during our previous attempts. We broke a rudder on the way back, but decided to continue as we were doing well on time. Given the direction of the wind, we had to tack several times, which effectively extended the distance travelled."

This was not the first try of the team sponsored by Lombard Odier & Cie, as it had already made multiple unsuccessful attempts this year to break the record. In carrying off this feat, l'Hydroptère.ch shows that the three years of technological development were worth it. It is the third boat to win the Blue Ribbon.

The l'Hydroptère.ch team, Tuesday August 20: Daniel Schmäh (skipper), Antoine Anceau, Yves Courvoisier, Stéphane Dyen, Guillaume Coyon.

About Hydros


Hydros is a research center applied to sailing, tackling 3 challenges: Hydro Cup (participation in the C Class Catamaran World Championship), Hydro Contest (Academic Contest), and Hydro Speed Tour (Speed Record Contest).

After designing Hydroptère.ch, a boat equipped with foils, holding the hour and kilometer record on Lake Geneva, Hydros is currently preparing the C Class Catamaran World Championship and has designed, for this purpose, two boats to defend the Swiss Flag and its know-how.

In between, Team Hydros has launched the HydroContest, a competition for university students in technical and engineering schools, who will have to optimize the efficiency of boats equipped with foils.

Hydros is willing to participate in actions contributing to sustainable development. The scientific conclusions obtained while looking for sports performances aim to be applied to industrial projects turned towards renewable energies.

Hydros collaborates with the shipyard Décision SA which has among other things built the composite structures.