History

Overview

Corsier Port Boatyard was started in 1909 when Jules Megevet, a well known industrialist from Geneva, built a boatyard in a place called "La Gabiule" in the Bay of Corsier. In 1933, Georges Gangloff, the celebrated automobile designer and navigator, along with his son-in-law, Louis Plojoux, took over and modernized the facility. Corsier Port Boatyard frequently gained distinction, as was the case with the 1960 Olympic Games, where, on the waters of the Gulf of Naples, the Swiss team won honors with their 5.5 JI sailboat produced in the workshops of Corsier Port Boatyard. Corsier Port Boatyard constructed more than 550 wooden sailboats and motorboats, including Switzerland's largest yacht in 1939 (the G1), and a great number of 5.5 and 6 meter JI sailboats and 15 meter SNS sailboats which distinguished themselves throughout Europe.

Today, managed by Thierry Plojoux, representing the fourth generation, Corsier Port Boatyard is run by a dynamic team, passionate about yachting and determined to advance the name and reputation of this exceptional enterprise.

History of the Corsier Port
Boatyard

Corsier Port Boatyard is located in an area called "La Gabiule." It is one of the first places built in the Bay of Corsier Port at the beginning of the last century.

It was in 1908 that Jules Megevet (brilliant industrialist from Geneva) built the first structures of a boatyard at Corsier Port. In 1909 these buildings included office buildings and a large construction workshop which still exists today.

The port now was equipped with launching rails of over a hundred meters in length and a landing pier, unique structures at that time in the region.

The first project of the Boatyard was the development and construction of a performance motorboat, the success of which was internationally recognized in 1912 when the motorboat "Mais-je-vais-piquer X" was crowned "Roi de la Mer" (King of the Sea) at the World Championship of the Sea at Monaco. (The name of the boat is a play on words using the name of the boat builder, Megevet, and that of the motor manufacturer, Picket.)

The First World War temporarily interrupted the development of the Boatyard which was later resumed by Jules Megevet of "Chantier de Constructions Navales du Léman" (Leman yard of naval constructions). Following shortages of fuel indispensable for its motorboats, the company saw its activity rapidly decline and ultimately fell into liquidation. In the period immediately following, the yard was utilized for various mechanical and aeronautical productions such as seaplanes.

In 1933, Georges Gangloff, an automobile industrialist from Geneva and a sailing enthusiast (on the 6 meter JI), purchased the property, and buildings. He was assisted by his son-in-law, Louis Plojoux, who would assume the commercial management of the family enterprise.

The Boatyard was reborn under the name of Petit Lac Boatyard. Many of the specialized employees (mechanics, carpenters, etc.) were relocated from the Gangloff automobile production business to the Boatyard. At that time, automobile construction was not very different from motorboat construction.

The Boatyard then enthusiastically resumed the construction of sport motorboats. The Boatyard further extended its activity to the design and construction of racing sailboats and pleasure sailboats, in close collaboration with naval architects Copponex, Reimers, Camatte, Olson, etc.

In 1939, the yard produced the largest motor yacht in Switzerland, Jackie II, under the direction of architect Knud Reimers.

The Boatyard's name was changed to Corsier Port Boatyard at the end of the Second World War.

The years during the Second World War proved favorable to the construction of sailboats, on a lake spared from the conflict but where fuel was once again rationed.

Following the end of the war, Corsier Port Boatyard resumed its international acclaim by exporting worldwide (including to Japan) its competition sailboats and its motorboats.

Included among the clients and friends of Corsier Port Boatyard are internationally known figures like the king of Thailand, the Aga Khan and the actor Yul Brynner, and also equally celebrated skippers from Geneva like Noverraz and Copponex, who contributed greatly to the reputation of the enterprise by winning numerous competitions in Switzerland and abroad at the helm of sailboats made at Corsier Port Boatyard.

At the 1960 Olympic Games in Naples, the Swiss and French teams used 5.5 meter JI sailboats developed and built by Corsier Port Boatyard.

The Swiss team brought back the bronze medal on Balerina IV with M. Metzger and his teammates Copponex and Girard.

More than 550 wooden sailboats and motorboats of all sizes were constructed for yachting's great navigators and amateurs. Today these boats are always sought after and those which still exist are preserved with great dedication by their owners.

By the end of the 1960s, the boating market saw classic wooden construction become marginalized and supplanted by mass production polyester and fiberglass boats.

The grandson of Georges Gangloff, Luc Plojoux, naval draftsman and builder, assumed management of the family enterprise and brought this experience acquired in boatyards of Sweden, North America and France.

Corsier Port Boatyard decided not to undertake production of composite material units in a very competitive market rapidly dominated by mass production abroad. Instead they became representatives for brand name production fiberglass boats and developed the premier service marina of Geneva, offering all types of repair services and general boat maintenance.

Corsier Port Boatyard remained creative nevertheless and is one of the first to offer its clients a dry-land marina service thus responding to an increasing shortage of spaces for docking in the water. It was at this time that the large dry-land marina hangar was constructed on the land behind the Yard, a very innovative construction, and it remains fully operational today.

Today, Corsier Port Boatyard is still a family enterprise, and the fourth generation intends to ensure a bright, dynamic future worthy of its exceptional past.

Corsier Port Boatyard carries quality brands such as Sea Ray, Chris-craft, Boesch, Jeanneau and Zodiac, and offers maintenance, winterizing, boat repair of all types, as well as a dry-land marina and an in-water marina service. We also offer maintenance and partial or complete renovation service for wooden sailboats and motorboats which respond well to the elevated humidity levels associated with proximity to the lake.

The yard also services current competition boats, offering a home port and maintenance base for the celebrated multi-hulls Decision 35 and Ventilo 27.

As its first centennial approaches, Corsier Port Boatyard is renovating and modernizing its installations, while still working on new naval constructions.

By its frequently prestigious history, Corsier Port Boatyard has acquired fame and an image that extends well beyond the Leman basin area. It still represents today a page of the history of the inland waterway of the region and is one of the oldest great boatyards still operating today along the shore of the lake.