The SYWoC is an annual sailing competition organized by students at the École Polytechnique, a French engineering school, seeing the world's best student sailing teams confront each other in a week-long series of races.
 

History
 

The Student Yachting World Cup (former Course de l'Europe) has been organized since 1979 by students at the École Polytechnique. Each year, the best sailing teams from universities all around the world meet and compete in thrilling yacht races.

When the race was created in 1979, only a few European countries participated. Other teams have joined in, from Eastern Europe, Japan, the United States or Australia, thus making it a real World Cup.

The race changed its name to "Student Yachting World Cup" and became the only competition to deliver the ISAF title of "Student Yachting World Champion".

Every year, the SYWoC takes place in a large French harbour (earlier editions have taken place in La Rochelle, Lorient, Marseilles, La Trinité, Toulon ...), around All Saints' Day.
 

The Grand Surprise

The boat used for the competition is the Grand Surprise. With its sleek waterline and slim deep bow and stern, the Grand Surprise is designed for fast sailing. It tends to seek an upright position due to a lead counter weight in the keel and this helps it to be both powerful and efficient when sailing close to the wind. With a following wind or even with little wind, it accelerates easily thanks to the surface area of the mainsail, designed with a ratio of 7:8 and the power of an assymetric spinnaker.

We have chosen this boat to provide an homogenous fleet, to ensure equality between the competitors.

For more information, take a look at the website of the Grand Surprise (in french)

 Hull length : 9.54 m 
 Overall beam: 2.98m
 Weight: 2650 kg
 Keel: 1050 kg
 Mainsail: 33.3 m2
 Jib: 22.8 m2
 Spinnaker: 87 m2

 Waterline : 8.93 m