Laurent Bourgnon was born on 16 April 1966 in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. His parents sold their business to buy a sailboat, and he sailed from an early age in the Caribbean and on a family world tour. In 1986 a transatlantic crossing on an 18-foot Hobie Cat beach catamaran made him known.
He went into racing: 2nd in the 1987 Mini Transat, then winner of the 1988 Solitaire du Figaro on his first attempt. He then moved to multihulls: 3rd in the 1990 Route du Rhum on the trimaran R.M.O, later Primagaz, with which he won the 1992 Québec-Saint-Malo transatlantic.
On Primagaz he won the 1993 Transat Jacques-Vabre, the 1994 Twostar with Cam Lewis, and the Route du Rhum in 1994 and again in 1998. In 1994 he also set a solo North Atlantic crossing record and a 24-hour distance record. In 1997 he won a transatlantic race with his brother Yvan.
He was also Thomas Coville's mentor early in his career: back from his studies in Australia, the young sailor met him and worked alongside him, until Bourgnon pushed him to strike out on his own rather than remain his assistant.
From 1999 he turned mostly to rally-raid, taking part in the Dakar several times (10th in 2001). A Knight of the Legion of Honour, he disappeared on 24 June 2015 during a dive in the Toau atoll, French Polynesia.
