l’Hydroptère.ch breaks Blue Ribbon record

by MaxComm Communication on 22 Aug 2013 The flying boat l’Hydroptère.ch, piloted by Daniel Schmäh, yesterday smashed 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