Swiss Miss

Why not have some winter news out of Switzerland, where there's snow, gruyère, chocolate and Alinghi, (which isn't too Swiss anyway). We have other good boatyards too and I wanted to let you know something about the 5.5m IC, of which the Swiss fleet is one of the most active. It's also in this class that Switzerland won it's last Olympic medals (1960 and 1968). This winter, we have again 4 boats under construction. Two of them in epoxy-glass fiber, built at Wilke Boatyard, on the shore of lake Thun. Many of you may know the famous Finn carbon masts produced by Wilke, and soon you might hear more about the Star built by Wilke in collaboration with Steinmayer.

The foto shows, that Wilke builds the 5.5 similarly to a America's Cup boats, i.e. like two half models put together. As in 2001, Jochen Schümann has won again the World Championship last January in Syndney on a Wilke 5.5m, SUI-210. Wilke also produces its complete carbon rig, which you can also find on boats built by other yards.

Two other boats are built in a yard near Geneva, however in cold molded wood. On one of the pictures you see Sébastien Schmidt, the architect, who also designed the Alinghi catamarans, the Décision-35 Catamaran, Gitana-X, and many other fast lake racers like the Psaros 40, who lead the fleets of the longest inshore race of Europe, the Bol d'Or on lake Geneva.

With kind regards,
Stefan Zlot, Geneva.
(SUI-192)

01/30/06