I was about 10 when I built my first "boat" during a summer holiday on the shore of the lake. There was no concrete there at that time: just an idyllic small, sand and shingle beach under huge willows. I remember that even though a very pretty girl Marinette embarked as a passenger on board my raft, it was technically far more interesting to observe that some kind of centre-board is essential to allow a sailboat to sail against the wind! Thereby I acquired my first principles of sailing and learned by the way - sometimes painfully - how to handle tools.

My first real sailboat was a Vaurien, that brilliant little centreboarder in plywood designed by J.-J. Herbulot and on which I began my sailing life with my wife Eliane and like many sailors of my generation.
 
t that time the boat carried just a main and a jib yet, but was perfect to learn sailing while the strong Joran gales of the lake of Neuchâtel confronted us with an extensive range of sensitive sailing situations.

Another unforgettable memory, or the art of undertaking exhilarating ventures with a team of friends... without the need of taking oneself too seriously (an upsetting fault of man, the most presumptuous flea of the Creation): building a trimaran together with the Fadanautes of the Cercle de la Voile de Neuchâtel, which became the world vice-champion of SAILING BATHTUBS at Lutry in 1981!:-)  
 
The "Trifada" was 25 ft long, 15 ft wide, with a mast of 30 ft, 430 ft² of sails on the tack and 800 ft² downwind, a draft of 7 ft and 1100 lbs of weight on 6 standard steel bathtubs made unsinkable.

In 1984 I set off aboard a Herbulot Corsaire, a ballasted centre-boarder of 18 ft. Sailing with my young son Yannick from the Jura along the Doubs, Saône and Rhône rivers, through their locks we headed for the Mediterranean sea. From there I sailed alone along the coast from Marseille to St-Tropez, then crossed over to Calvi and visited the Corsican west coast and the north-eastern archipelago of Sardinia. From the Strait of Bonifacio I headed for the Balearic Islands and reached Mahon, on Menorca, after 4½ days at sea (290 M). From there I sailed to Palma de Mallorca, just before the arrival of a tough winter, which saw "GUS" 's deck covered in snow. Unforgettable the close encounter with a couple of fin whales and their young: each of quite four times our length and a hundred times our weight!

Throughout 40 years I've had the privilege to cover more than 100.000 miles at sea, in cruises, races, charter or deliveries, aboard every possible kind of sailing and even motor boats. I've never counted the days I spent on water neither the shores where I dropped an anchor or tied up a mooring rope. But not for one minute was I bored nor grew tired of breathing salty air. Now there are still so many seas and coasts left to discover off the beaten routes: so many reasons to carry on my way by heading for the open sea aboard "'Ata'Ata".

For my 60th birthday I bought myself an old bicycle, fitted it out properly for long range trips, loaded it up with 110 lbs of travelling and camping equipment and set off two years in a row between Switzerland and the Mediterranean.
 
Among the many memories of these exciting journeys were the tough climbs up the Alpine passes of Simplon (6587 ft) and Grand-Saint-Bernard (8100 ft), a fractured foot through helping gardening in Liguria, then a night of beginning December spent in my tent on the wonderful shore of the lake of Orta by 23°F, before cycling back up to Switzerland in the snow and on black ice.

Jumping temporarily from the water into the air, I took up paragliding in 1987 and built the world's first motorized paragliders, developing the invention of its creator, my unfortunately late friend Bernd Gärtig, who was a great musician and creative genius.
 
I made the first official flights of "PagoJet" in 1988, using a 3 radial cylinders driving unit on the back. Afterwards this amazing, smallest aircraft in the world performed the first crossing of the Channel and went on to fly all over the world from Australia to America, over Japan and the Arctic territories.