GstaadLife

The Gstaad Yacht Club has been founded 28th February 1998. The 10 founding members met in the Hotel Olden to realise they idea of a Yacht Club in the mountains that many people considered as a joke. Under the patronage of His Majesty King Constantine the idea as well received a clear mission: "Let's create a global Yacht Club far away from waters instead of an other local Club by the waters."
Founding member and today's Commodore Peter Erzberger considers the idea and mission on its best way to be realised and reached: "Today the club has 420 members coming from more than 20 countries, we have relationships to clubs from Asia to South America, a sailing programme on different levels and a very active and diverse club life in Gstaad."
Those who do know the GYC, know that it is an integrated part of the "way of living" in Gstaad. If it did not exist one would have to invent it.
The clubhouse, a common project realised together with the Grand Hotel Bellevue, empresses with style and elegance what makes Gstaad a favourite place to be and to live for many guests.

Step by step to professionalism
Since the club has been founded the Executive Board has been devoted to create a qualified and all year round structure. Therefore the Board is glad to announce to nominations: Cindy Schönrich (32), who took over the administrative part of the GYC since 2009 will take over the club management of the GYC from 1 March and become member of the Executive Board at the same tim. Daniel Matti, Board member and treasurer is glad that with Cindy the GYC got "an additional value, that the members appreciate very much, not only humanly, but as well professionally."
Andrea Melis (35), for almost 10 years in different positions in the F&B part will be named Maitre of the Gstaad Yacht Club and from this day on, will be responsible for the GYC F&B part.
In collaboration with the GYC Caterer Robert Speth this part will be further adopted to requests of members and guests.
Giancarlo Camerana, Rear Commodore and as well as member of the Board responsible for members issues is sure that Andrea is the right person to take over this responsibility and adds, "members and guests are glad to see Andrea taking this responsibility, who grew with the GYC and appreciate his friendly and cordial personality."

It is with regret that we say goodbye to Eva Sailer. Reading your comments based on her parting note it is clear that she has done a good job. 

7 years ago GstaadLife started as an 8 page English language supplement that was inserted into the German language newspaper, Anzeiger Von Saanen. From these humble beginnings GstaadLife grew to what today is an enthusiastically supported magazine which holds the highest annual magazine circulation in the region (approximately 45 000 copies ). Such growth in acceptance took time and required regular evolution to keep abreast of the needs of our readers and the advertiser community. 

In the same way our online GstaadLife.com also requires evolution. Since its beginning online media has changed and improved at breakneck speed and we recognise, quite frankly, that we need to catch up! 
So it is my pleasure to inform you that GstaadLife online will continue as you know it in the short term. However as time goes on you will see significant evolutions to the content and format. We plan to align the content more with our magazine giving you the reader a deeper insight into each story. In essence we will publish much more content. 

I thank you for your valued support. Best wishes

Peter Sonnekus-Williams. EDITOR IN CHIEF GSTAADLIFE

This past Thursday October 20 2011 at around 17:30 two men robbed a jewelry shop in Gstaad. They threatened the shopkeeper with a knife and tied her up before they got away with watches worth tens of thousands of francs. The cantonal police of Bern are asking for help in finding the robbers. In a press release they are described as possibly Russian, both between 30 and 35 years old. One is about 1.8m tall, slim, with a pointy nose and dark, short hair. He wore a dark brown leather jacket and dark trousers. The second robber is about 1.65 m tall and also slim. He has a flat nose and dark, black hair. He wore a dark jacket and dark grey jeans. Please call the Bernese cantonal police on 033 227 61 11 if you saw anything. 

On October 22 2011 the Rialto will close for the season. This will also be the day that Piero Bigai retires after 40 years. He started in the 60's at the Gstaad Palace and for the past few years has been running the Restaurant Rialto. We wish him all the very best for his retirement. 

Mark the date in your calendar: October 27 to 30 2011. Local businesses present themselves, lots of interesting stuff, food, shows, kids activities etc. Here is the program.

The Hotel Arc-en-Ciel in Gstaad is celebrating its 50th anniversary this Saturday October 22 2011 from 11:00 till 17:00. You can have a look behind the scenes, there will be music, a lucky wheel, pony riding, face painting, a bouncy castle, the famous electric cars, and a special pizza oven for the kids.

BEMO (Bewegte Momente) is happening again - Sunday October 23 2011 from 10h00 to 13h00 at the school sports center between Saanen and Gstaad. They bring out every bit of sports equipment you can think of and the children can use everything for free. Parents are responsible for their little ones so you cannot just dump them there - but lots of fun is guaranteed and they will sleep soundly that night.

The Pure Snowboard Shop in Gstaad is organizing a fashion show at the Split Club on Saturday October 22 2011. The runway will feature the newest collections for the upcoming winter sports season. The fun kicks off around 22:00. 

The cranes are gone and the press office of The Alpina Gstaad is going into overdrive. So the news is that everything at the first newly-constructed 5-star hotel in Gstaad in the past 100 years seems to be going smoothly. And they have found their managing director, one Niklaus Leuenberger, a Swiss who has managed hotels over the last 30 years throughout Asia and the US. There'll be lots more on this story in the next months. The grand opening is slated for December 2012.

Gstaad Saanenland Tourism has confirmed that room nights in the region are down compared to previous years. The blame appears to lie squarely with the strong Swiss franc, which makes visiting Switzerland in general and Gstaad in particular even more expensive than it used to be. The saving grace, according to Gstaad's tourist director Martin Bachofner, was that at least the Swiss guests have stayed loyal to the region, even as Euro earners, Brits and Americans have stayed away. Andrea Scherz, the director of the Gstaad Palace, spoke at length a out this topic earlier in the season in an interview with the Tagesanzeiger, reflecting the concerns of many of the region's hoteliers. For those of you who read German click here for the interview. Or here for our previous comment on this.