Yvan Bourgnon

About Yvan Bourgnon

Born on July 6, 1971, in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, Yvan Bourgnon’s love story with the sea dates back to his earliest childhood. At the age of 8, he traveled around the world with his parents for four years! At 13, his family settled in Saint Brévin in Brittany. It was only a few years later, after completing his studies, that Yvan decided to pursue his passion: sailing. In 1995, he achieved an unmatched triple: the Mini-Fastnet, the “Transgascogne,” and above all, the Mini-Transat. Yvan Bourgnon, a young man endowed with numerous technical and tactical qualities, then went on to achieve victories and set records. Alongside his older brother Laurent, he won the Transat Jacques Vabres in 1997. In the same race in 1999, they finished in third place after a mishap with a float that forced them to make a brief stop in Saint Barthélemy. In 2000, he set the record for the greatest distance ever covered by a crew in 24 hours (625.34 nautical miles) on a 60-foot trimaran during the Transat Québec – Saint Malo, also securing the third step of the podium. In 2001, during the Challenge Mondial Assistance, Yvan had a spectacular race. Indeed, he held the first place for the first 10 days of the race before finishing in fourth place. That same year, he set the record for the Channel Challenge in crew in 2h 14mn and 55s. Brave, in 2002 during the Route du Rhum, after capsizing, Yvan stayed aboard for five days, refusing to abandon his overturned boat. On the family side, Yvan is the happy father of two little boys, Mathis and Timothée, aged 12 and 14. In 2006, Yvan broke the 24-hour record: 610 nautical miles with training sails, carrying 1 ton of equipment and experiencing a foil break at the 21st hour… Between 2013 and 2015, he completed the 1st solo non-habitable round-the-world trip without GPS. The challenge of the impossible in a few figures: 220 days at sea, 12 hours at the helm per day, 18 stages, 3 oceans crossed, 13 seas, 5,500 km traveled… an experience that demonstrated, among other things, that the essential work is done upstream and as a team, and that an accident is not a failure! His experience allowed him to affirm talents closely aligned with the values of the company:

• self-overcoming
• team management
• risk management
• partner search
• how to manage individual performance within a team
• sharing, mutual aid, solidarity
• stories of anecdotes and experiences of an exceptional sailor

Yvan can offer you several interventions:

• Facilitation during your annual seminar on the topics listed above with a video presentation
• Facilitation around the world of sailing: possibility to organize exceptional sailing baptisms, to organize a corporate sailing race dedicated to your company, or to be your skipper in an existing sailing race.
• Participation in special events: product launches, signings, store openings, etc.