The Pirate Guild of Ouchy turns 90

In times of the latin sails

In Geneva, the Neptune from 1904 is part of the cityscape. In Lausanne and the surrounding area, the Vaudoise attracts everyone’s attention. The listed sailing ship is the pride of the pirate guild of Ouchy. The “Barques du Léman” used to transport stones and goods, but today they are used for pleasure cruises.

Before Lake Geneva became a renowned regatta area, it was used quite pragmatically for the transportation of goods. Thousands of cubic meters of stone were shipped from Meillerie to Geneva, where many stately buildings were constructed. The Lake Geneva freighters with their unmistakable lateen sails experienced their heyday at the time. They were brought from one shore to the other with a sure hand by their crews. The sailors knew the lake and its winds like the back of their hand and always knew exactly where to catch the best wind. Even today, people still refer to this as the “Route des Barques”. The last brick named Violette – a somewhat smaller Lake Geneva freighter than the Neptune – was launched in Locum in 1932. When her owner Eloi Giroud closed his transport company in 1948, the Violette was to be scrapped. The guild “Confrérie des Pirates d’Ouchy” and its founder Dr. Francis-Marius Messerli got wind of the planned scrapping and stopped the project. Without knowing what they were getting themselves into, they bought the “small” 30-tonner and turned it into their flagship. Today, the former cargo ship is used for round trips and other events.

The pirates of Ouchy maintain close ties with the “Commune libre et indépendante d’Ouchy”, an association that works to preserve the character of Ouchy. As everyone on Lake Geneva knows, the southern district of Lausanne is quite unique. One of its special features is the Confrérerie des Pirates d’Ouchy. It has 412 members with clearly defined roles. On the initiative of its founder Dr. Messerli, the guild brought together the four most important societies in Ouchy when it was founded: the shipping company (NANA), the lake rescue company (SNO), the sailing club Cercle de la Voile (CVL) and the water sports club Union Nautique (UNOL). The free and independent commune of Ouchy, whose most famous inhabitant was none other than Jean-Pascal Delamuraz, has a rebellious streak. In the 19th century, vineyards and fields lay between bourgeois Lausanne “up on the hillside” and Ouchy, the main town on the lake shore.

This geographical separation prompted Ouchy to break away from Lausanne. The separation of powers goes quite far: Ouchy not only has its own flag, currency and newspaper, its own passport and its own municipal building, but also its own municipal president, consuls and ambassadors. They are still in service, including in the Parisian municipality of Montmartre. Mutinous like all the traditional guilds of the canton of Vaud – the Milices vaudoises, the Brigands du Jorat and the Confrérie du Guillon – the Pirates d’Ouchy are masters at provoking the institutions of upper Lausanne and the establishment in general. In 2024, after a parade through the old town, they sent a few of their men to the town hall and took the presidents of the city council and the Grand Council hostage. In the heat of the moment, one novice literally overshot the mark. He fired the cannon (the pirates of Ouchy have their own artillery) and aimed at a window of the building opposite, above the Café du Raisin! It was not to be the last miss. A little later in the summer, another mishap occurred at the start of the 47th Régate des Vieux-Bateaux in La Tour-de-Peilz. The crew of the Vaudoise had not set the firing angle of their small bronze howitzer correctly. Although it was a blank cartridge, the charge pierced the sails of another boat. You can’t make saints out of pirates, just ask Jack Sparrow! Incidentally, the Brigands du Jorat are cut from the same cloth. They are not even afraid to block the Bern-Lausanne train line. Vaudoise has an eventful history behind it. It has experienced both highs and lows. When the hull showed signs of weakness in the 1970s, renowned marine engineers and no less prominent technical consultants recommended plasticizing the underwater hull with fibreglass and epoxy resin. No sooner said than done. But the supposed cure turned out to be a disaster. The oak planks could no longer breathe under the suffocating layer and began to rot. In order to save the boat, the entire hull had to be dismantled except for a 3.50 meter long keel section, which is still in its original condition today. In 1980, the cargo sailing boat was taken to the Sartorio shipyard in Mies, Geneva, where it was restored for three years. A second six-month restoration followed in the fall of 2014. One of the undisputed highlights of the guild and its floating mascot was its participation in the 2004 Fêtes Maritimes in Brest. Just imagine: A ship 22.65 meters long, 6.90 meters wide and weighing 25 tons was transported across France. A Herculean task! Of course, the special transport had its pitfalls. It even had to drive around a few traffic circles in the opposite direction, otherwise it would have been impossible to get through. But the effort was worth it: for the first time in its history, the pirates’ boat made the acquaintance of the Atlantic. The pirate guild of Ouchy and the free, independent municipality of Ouchy, under the leadership of “Grand Patron” Gérald Hagenlocher and “Syndic” Christophe Andreae, are actively campaigning for sailing with lateen sails to be recognized by UNESCO. The goal is to achieve this in 2026.

The cargo ships from Lake Geneva

• Neptune, Geneva (1904)

• Vaudoise, Ouchy (1932)

• Savoie, Evian (replica from 1997)

• La Demoiselle, Villeneuve (new building from 1999)

• Aurore, St. Gingolph (replica from the year 2000)