Built for the Marquis of Avila who captained his first journey across the Bay of Marseille on the day of the declaration of war in Germany on 3rd Septmber, 1939. Lak II was hidden under a pile of coal to prevent her being seized.
After the French liberation, the boat was used in the port of Marseille for relaxation and fun, and in the 60s, the aforementioned Baron Von Bich used it to train with the ‘Constellation’.
1914-1994 Owned by Baron Marcel von Bich, one of the inventors of the biro.
“At some point in the early 1950s, Lak II passed through the hands of another Marseilles yachtsman, Maurice Pommé, who cruised her extensively in the Mediterranean until arriving at Hyères in 1957. Pommé met ballpoint pen magnate Baron Bich there and after an evening of socialising, Pommé left by land and the Baron was her new custodian.
Perhaps Lak II acted as the go-between in Bich’s future sailing career and America’s Cup obsession, and the eventual engagement of André Mauric as designer of his first two America’s Cup challengers. During 1964, ownership in Lak II passed to Bich’s brother-in-law, Roger LaForest, and she remained berthed at Hyères. Bich had replaced Lak II as the family daysailor with that autumn’s defeated America’s Cup challenger, Sovereign.
With the subsequent purchase by LaForest of Sovereign’s David Boyd-designed sistership, Kurrewa V (now IKRA), and by Bich of the 1964 successful America’s Cup defender, Constellation, the Baron’s Association Française Pour la Coupe de l’America story had well and truly begun. And Lak II was very much part of it at Hyères, as crew training boat.” (Sandeman Yacht Company)
2006 – 18 month restoration at ‘Classic Works’ in La Ciotat, France.
2007 – Won the Barcelona – Palma de Mallorca Race Trophy
