Born in 1971 in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Yvan Bourgnon set off aged eight with his parents on a nearly four-year world voyage, after which the family settled in Saint-Brevin-les-Pins. The younger brother of Laurent Bourgnon, he made his name in 1995 by winning the Mini-Fastnet, the Transgascogne and the Mini Transat, an unprecedented treble.
In 1997 he won the Transat Jacques Vabre with Laurent aboard the trimaran Primagaz. He then raced several multihulls (Foncia, Bayer, Nautica), retired from the 1998 Route du Rhum and capsized in 2002 aboard Rexona Men, spending five days under the hull. From 2005 he created Team Océan and skippered the trimaran Brossard (6th in the 2006 Route du Rhum, 4th in the 2007 Transat Jacques Vabre), setting several records.
From October 2013 to June 2015 he sailed around the world on a 6.30 m open sports catamaran without GPS, first with Vincent Beauvarlet then alone, despite a shipwreck in Sri Lanka in 2014. In 2017 he sailed solo through the Northwest Passage on a sports catamaran, a crossing that drew controversy.
He founded The SeaCleaners in 2016 against ocean plastic pollution and left it in November 2023 after a dispute. He keeps racing on Nacra F20 catamarans, notably with his son Mathis.
