A Vendée Globe on a sports catamaran
Yvan Bourgnon left Nome, Alaska, on 13th July to become the first sailor to cross the Northwest Passage in a non-habitable sports catamaran, single-handed and without assistance. After two months and six days, he has just completed his challenge. He reached Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, and the end of his adventure on Friday 22nd September, at 12 midnight local time. After a journey of more than 7,500 kilometres - linking the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean - through the Arctic islands of Canada's Far North.
On this route, in the heart of the Arctic Circle, well beyond the 70th parallel, reserved until now for icebreakers, Yvan braved the elements on "Ma Louloute", a small, uninhabitable sailboat barely 6.30 m long and 4 m wide.
Passing through the Bering Strait, Barrow, the Beaufort Sea, Amundsen Gulf or Baffin Bay, Yvan sailed in the middle of hostile elements: first the rain, then the polar cold, the blocks of ice and the many rocks that littered his route, but also the fauna, with an omnipresence of polar bears... All these elements forced Yvan to sail on sight, all the more so with the days getting shorter, and to sleep in 5 to 10 minute increments.
"I've been through more than I thought I would. Difficulties built up along the way. This Challenge was certainly the most difficult of all those I've accomplished in 7 years on "Ma Louloutte", my faithful sport catamaran. The hardest thing was this almost permanent feeling of not having a safety margin: a dismasting and I wouldn't have had the time to build a makeshift rig before going to crash on a cliff, a desalting and I wouldn't have had enough finger sensitivity to straighten my catamaran, an anchor which slipped at anchor and it was also the drama assured, without engine. Today I've reached the limits of what can be achieved with this type of craft alone" explained Yvan when he arrived.
An ecological challenge
As a result of warmer waters and the partial melting of the ice pack between the pole and the continent, the Northwest Passage has become a possible ocean route, a few weeks a year. Yvan's mission was also to bear essential witness to the consequences of global warming and the presence of numerous oceanic wastes encountered on the route.
An adventurous challenge
This adventure also allows Yvan to confirm his status as an adventurer. Since 2010, the date of his very first crossing in a sport catamaran, he has been carrying the message of returning to the fundamentals of his sport by sailing on a non-habitable and non-motorised craft, moving forward on the strength of the wind alone and going by intuition, with his extraordinary seafaring sense.
