Photo: Yvan Bourgnon
A few years ago, a Franco-Swiss adventurer made headlines after completing a challenging 71-day solo journey along the Northwest Passage, just one of his many bold endeavors at sea. Now, it looks like that trip wasn’t so great after all, and his achievements are contested in court.
At 51, Yvan Bourgnon claims to have multiple world records under his belt while also being the founder and chairman of a non-profit called Sea Cleaners. But this impressive image is now being shattered by a legal dispute over the documentary that captured his Arctic Ocean adventure back in 2017.
According to Insider, Bourgnon is accused of having allegedly cheated on his journey and having made up some wild stories and will have to answer in court about it this week. If the allegations are true, it means that he didn’t actually break a world record, although, according to his statements, he never claimed to have done that in the first place.
So, how do you cheat on a solo crossing of the Arctic Ocean? Well, Bourgnon apparently spent multiple nights in a hotel and also got help from other sailors, including being towed by a Dutch motorboat for a significant portion of the trip.
What made Bourgnon’s journey special was that he was onboard a beach cat that had no cabin, meaning it was uninhabitable. This is why it would be a big deal if he actually spent nights at hotels. Talking to the media, the adventurer didn’t deny it, implying that it was the only he was able to continue the journey. Even his stories about the challenges he encountered along the way, including a polar bear that apparently made its way onboard, are also being contested.
Last year, his famous beach cat, the 21-foot (6.4 meters) “Ma Loulotte,” which he helped design, was up for grabs. Beach cats are a type of catamaran sailboats that can be beached on the sand. They were made popular by surfboard designer Hobie Alter, but the original design dates back to the traditional Polynesian double-canoe sailboats.
According to Insider, Bourgnon is accused of having allegedly cheated on his journey and having made up some wild stories and will have to answer in court about it this week. If the allegations are true, it means that he didn’t actually break a world record, although, according to his statements, he never claimed to have done that in the first place.
So, how do you cheat on a solo crossing of the Arctic Ocean? Well, Bourgnon apparently spent multiple nights in a hotel and also got help from other sailors, including being towed by a Dutch motorboat for a significant portion of the trip.
What made Bourgnon’s journey special was that he was onboard a beach cat that had no cabin, meaning it was uninhabitable. This is why it would be a big deal if he actually spent nights at hotels. Talking to the media, the adventurer didn’t deny it, implying that it was the only he was able to continue the journey. Even his stories about the challenges he encountered along the way, including a polar bear that apparently made its way onboard, are also being contested.
Last year, his famous beach cat, the 21-foot (6.4 meters) “Ma Loulotte,” which he helped design, was up for grabs. Beach cats are a type of catamaran sailboats that can be beached on the sand. They were made popular by surfboard designer Hobie Alter, but the original design dates back to the traditional Polynesian double-canoe sailboats.
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