Laurent Bourgnon

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Bourgnon crossed the Atlantic on one such Hobie 16 in 1986

Laurent Bourgnon (born April 16, 1966 , missing since June 24, 2015 after a dive off the Toau Atoll ) is a Swiss long-distance record sailor who won several well-known regattas as a single-handed sailor (i.e. alone on the boat) and skipper. In recent years, Bourgnon has taken part in the Dakar Rally several times as a driver , and in 2001 he finished 10th.

biography

Bourgnon first crossed the Atlantic on a sailing boat when he was four years old in his parents' boat. At the age of 11 he took part in a circumnavigation on his parents' boat and with his brother Yvan Bourgnon (born July 6, 1971). At the age of 20 he crossed the Atlantic in November 1986 in a Hobie Cat 16 , a cabinless catamaran , together with Frederic Giraldi; The crossing from Puerto Rico on Gran Canaria to the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe lasted 21 days , during which the two sailors ate pre-cooked emergency rations; The two needed two days longer than the French-Australian sailing duo Daniel Pradel and Tony Laurent, who started in an open Hobie 18 in the same year, and were hospitalized after their arrival because of severe sunburn and dehydration .

In 1987, Bourgnon began his racing career when, ahead of Isabelle Autissier , he took second place in the one- handed Transat 650 regatta . A year later he was already at the top of the podium in the one-hand regatta Solitaire du Figaro , which runs in four stages along the French coast. In 1990 he took third place in the overall ranking of the one-handed transatlantic regatta Route du Rhum .

This was followed by victories in the single-handed long-distance regatta from La Baule in France to Dakar in Senegal (1991) and, as a crew member, in the Open UAP (1991) and the transatlantic regatta Transat Québec-Saint-Malo (1992) as well as top places in other regattas. In 1993 he won the title of FICO Lacoste World Skipper Champion for the first time , for which performance in certain regattas counts; by 1997 he was to win the title unbeaten five times in a row, while his sponsor Primagaz received the sponsorship title for the years 1995 to 1997, which was awarded in parallel.

In 1994, Bourgnon set a record for the longest sailed in 24 hours with his 60- foot (18.3-meter) trimaran Primagaz (ex RMO ) with 540 nautical miles (average speed 22.5 knots , approx. 41.7 km / h) Route on - for single-handed sailors as well as for boats with crew up to 60 feet. The record for single-handed sailors was only taken from Bourgnon in 2005 by Francis Joyon with his 90-foot trimaran Idec (542.7 nautical miles) and for boats up to 60 feet even in 2006, when Yves Parlier took it one-handed (586 nautical miles) and with a five-person crew ( 597.81 nautical miles); both records were further improved in 2006 by Laurent Bourgnon's brother Yvan. In June of that year he and Cam Lewis set a transatlantic record in the east-west direction for boats with two crew members during the TwoSTAR regatta , when the two with Primagaz for 2,800 nautical miles from Plymouth to Newport 9 days, 8 hours, 5 minutes and Took 20 seconds (average speed 12.49 knots). Bourgnon and Lewis won the Twostar transatlantic regatta from Plymouth to Newport, and that same month Bourgnon cut the one-handed west-east transatlantic record for boats up to 60 feet to 7 days, 2 hours and 34 minutes when he did the 2,925 nautical miles from Ambrose Light ( New York ) to Lizard Point (England) (average speed 17.15 knots). In the same year he won the one-handed transatlantic regatta Route du Rhum from Saint-Malo to the Caribbean. Bourgnon was nominated this year for the title of World Sailor of the Year by the International Sailing Federation .

After further placements, Bourgnon rose to the podium at the Fastnet race in 1997 and, together with his brother Yvan, at the transatlantic regatta Transat Jacques Vabre . In 1998 he achieved another victory at the Route du Rhum with Primagaz as the only sailor to date.

From 2000 to 2002 Bourgnon took part in the (Paris) Dakar rally three times (13th, 10th and 13th place) and in 2001 attempted a transatlantic record with his tried and tested sailing partner Cam Lewis.

More recently Bourgnon pursued according to data of its web site, the project of a giant catamaran ( "Maxicats") Dragster des mers (named after the cars in drag race ), with whom he long-distance sailing records on known international routes - z. B. the tea route from Hong Kong to London or a circumnavigation of the world as part of the Trophée Jules Verne  - would like to set up. The catamaran, built according to plans by architect Nigel Irens, is to be 38 m long and 20 m wide, with a mast height of 60 m and a weight of 20 tons; the main sail should be 400 m², the genoa 250 m² and the gennaker 600 m².

For the beginning of 2008, Bourgnon had prepared for his sixth participation in the Dakar rally, before the rally had been canceled the day before the start for safety reasons.

Services

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year Awards 1994. ( Memento from June 26, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) on www.sailing.org (accessed February 23, 2008)
  2. ↑ William H. Long Yard: A bacon on the Sea: Epic Voyages in the Most Improbable Vessels. McGraw-Hill Professional, 2003, ISBN 0-07-141306-5 , p. 304. (accessed February 23, 2008)
  3. ^ Cats Across the Atlantic , section Hans Bouscholte and Gerard Navarin. Across the Atlantic on a Nacra January 19, 1999 on gisc.ie ( Memento November 19, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed February 23, 2008)
  4. ↑ 24 Hour Distance Records on sailspeedrecords.com (accessed February 23, 2008)
  5. ↑ Ocean Race Records at www.sailspeedrecords.com (accessed February 23, 2008)
  6. ↑ Current Outright and All Other Ratified Records (speed order) on www.sailspeedrecords.com (English; accessed February 23, 2008)
  7. ↑ Le grand projet Maxicat on laurent-bourgnon.com (French; accessed February 23, 2008)
  8. ↑ (no details of the author; January 3, 2008). Yvan Muller: A Whole Different Challenge. Dakar: News from Scrutineering. Section Bourgnon Ready for the Ocean of Dunes on raid.racing-live.com (English .; accessed February 23, 2008)
  9. ↑ Auto-Moto-Rally-Dakar on www.mediafaxfoto.ro  ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) (English; accessed February 23, 2008)@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.mediafaxfoto.ro
  10. ↑ Rally Optic Tunisie-N ° 230: Paul BELMONDO (F) Guy LENEVEU (F). Nissan Pathfinder T2 (Production) on www.automobilsport.com (French; accessed February 23, 2008)
personal data
SURNAME Bourgnon, Laurent
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French-Swiss long-distance record sailor
DATE OF BIRTH April 16, 1966