User:Npettiaux/Surprise (sailing boat)

The Surprise is a class of fast cruise and regatta sailing boat, a sports day-boat.

== History and description == Surprise has undergone several changes since its creation in 1976. It was designed by Michel Joubert. Its aim was to offer a fast and family-friendly dayboat. The first units will sail on Lake Geneva before occupying all the lakes of Europe. More than 1500 units are sailing today, between ballads and regattas. The class is very active.

The last modifications date back to 2000. The boat has never changed its hull, one design [2] obliges. The latest versions have seen their transom open and their cockpit slightly modernised.

Its success led its manufacturer, Archambault, to launch the Grand Surprise a few years later.

Equipped with a comfortable cockpit for a boat of this size, it is suitable for different types of regattas, from coastal racing to match racing.

Depending on the buyer's preferences, it can be rigged in 7/8ths (45 m2 spinnaker) or in the "lake" version (65 m2 top spinnaker), have a fixed keel, a lifting keel, a double keel or a pivoting daggerboard in a keel with a shallower draft.

Following the bankruptcy of the Archambault Yachts shipyard in 2015, construction was taken over by the BG Race shipyard.