Yvan Bourgon embarks on a new challenge: around the world in the opposite direct

Yvan Bourgnon accumulates performances and records, yet he does not intend to stop there. Instead, he continues along his encouraging path, aiming at a new challenge: The Global Challenge.

This namerefers to an extremely difficult and demanding adventure as much to the sailor as to his boat. It is indeed a matter of circum navigating the world in the opposite direction. In other words, from West to East.

This planet tour in the opposite direction is the promise of having to face winds and particularly virulent waves, notably during the roaring 50s passage. The complexity of the business is all the more important when we start to sail, and especially on a multihull where stability is less forthcoming than with other types of boats. Today, however, the technological progress in the field (design, materials used…), as well as the improvements in terms of weather forecasts, allow for greater ambitions in this area. That ambition, precisely, Yvan Bourgnon has never missed, he who has recently performed a radiant performance on the sea. This includes the success of the 47 year-old French-Swiss skipper during the Northwest Passage between the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, via the Arctic islands of the Canadian North in September 2017. He was then in control of his “Louloute”, a 6.30 m sport catamaran. This summer, Yvan Bourgnon was again spotted in the company of his son Mathis twice: the crossing of the Mediterranean in July, breaking the record of Vittorio and Nico Malingri on that occasion, as well as that of the English Channel between Cowes and Dinard, improving here again the best time achieved until then.

Forward Sailing was alongside Yvan Bourgnon during these challenges and hopes to do the same when he embarks on the Global Challenge experience. To do so, the Neuchâtel intends to buy Francis Joyon’s former IDEC trimaran. With its 30 meters long, 16.5 meters wide and 11 tons, it was used to break 9 records and seems to be the ideal boat for such a grandiose challenge.

The objective for the sea adventurer is to circumnavigate the world in the opposite direction in less than 100 days and before the end of 2019.