Gstaad Yacht Club seeks victory in the Little Cup
by Cindy Schönrich 11 Sep 2015 00:01 BST
6-20 September 2015
For the LITTLECUP 2015, held in Switzerland and raced on Lake Geneva for the first time, the team of the Gstaad Yacht Club ties the knot with Saint-Gobain as an important partner that fits perfectly with its ambitious goal – to score the first LITTLECUP win for Switzerland.
The two top French sailors, Billy Besson and Matthieu Vandame, are GYC sport members and multiple world champions in various catamaran classes. With his team mate Marie Riou, Billy Besson became three-times world champion in the Olympic Nacra catamaran class; he is a training partner of Matías Bühler and Nathalie Brugger, another GYC sport members, who are on their way to 2016 Olympics in Brazil.
"I am very happy and excited to be a part of the Gstaad Yacht Club and represent this club at the LITTLECUP 2015. With our innovative boat and our experience as a team we are aiming for victory in Geneva", comments Billy after the training on the Lac Leman.
HYDROS INNOVATION SA, working in collaboration with the EPFL in Lausanne, is an internationally renowned specialist in all technical issues about moving in and on the water.
Hydros had built and developed two brand new C Class catamarans for the LITTLECUP2013 in Falmouth UK where one of them finished 2nd place. The Gstaad Yacht Club will be sailing on that boat for this year's event and made some modifications to improve its performance. "Hydros is very happy to see its 2013 boat on the starting line again with such a great team around. We wish them all the best for this year's edition of the LITTLECUP", comments Daniel Schmäh, Project Manager at Hydros Innovations SA.
Thanks to the partnership with Saint-Gobain, the team, which had already set a base for an ideal condition of Swiss-French partnership, has been strengthened further. "Through the partnership with the Gstaad Yacht Club, we want to express our commitment in Switzerland where Saint-Gobain (Vetrotech, Sanitas Troesch, Rigips, Isover, WeberMarmoran) has been present since 1937. Furthermore, technical development and international orientation have been at the heart of Saint-Gobain's strategy for 350 years now. This is why we share this unique team-building between Switzerland and France in such a highly technical sport", emphasizes Alfred Giesbrecht, President of Vetrotech Saint-Gobain.
The announcement of the team of the Gstaad Yacht Club to participate at the LITTLECUP2015 came as a surprise. The club, located in the mountains and with no direct access to the water, must therefore always find new ways to establish and enforce its sporting ambitions in new directions. In those efforts the club can always count on a wide and benevolent support of its members and patrons. The endeavour to belong to the top in the world of sport has been a part of the GYC philosophy which has relived for years.
"I am pleased that the Gstaad Yacht Club again seizes the opportunity and shows the will to accept such high-profile challenges. It is also very rewarding to work with the outstanding partners such as Saint-Gobain and HYDROS INNOVATION", adds Peter Erzberger, co-founder and Commodore of the GYC.
www.littlecup.org