Phoebus II

Phoebus II is a replica of a boat built in 1900 (about 1905, I am not sure).

It is a Trois Tonneaux. The history (well documented) of boat building for regattas in the eraly 1900 is very interesting

The boat was sailed until the 1980s, when it was not possible to keep up the hull anymore. A full reconstruction was required. The owners could not finance the rebuild. They created an association to support the upkeep of historical boats on the lake Geneva, Association Patrimoine Léman (in French) and the flag ship is Phoebus II.

See the pages dedicated to Phoebus II (ask Google) I do not know how to provide a direct link (due to the Web Site structures).

The boat was rigged with a mast built according to the 1900 specification (although hollow, it is damn heavy), and as close as possible to the construction uses and copies of the sails (now in Dacron colored in beige), gréement aurique, fore and aft rig. There is a genoa for light wind and jib et stay sail for stronger wind (at and over 4 bf). There is also an asymetric spinnaker (clearly an anachronism) purchased for racing.

The boat is unbelieveable lively by little wind. It is sailed in heavy conditions too, but sometimes it can get a bit hairy (in the waves of the Atlantic - the boat was filling more quickly than the crew could bail it out).

The boat sails on lake Geneva but travels to the Atlantic coast (Brest and further South) and to the Mediteranean (Cannes and Saint-Tropez parade regattas).

My connection to the Phoebus II

I learned to sail (1974, I was 14 years old, and my teachers were 1 year older) on Lake Geneva with the now owners of Phoebus, way before they purchased the boat (in the 1980s). I volunteer to maintain the sails and boat covers.