Yvan Bougnon's circumnavigation in a beach cat project

Yvan Bourgnon's new beach cat project under construction (SMA 1er) it's intended for a circumnavigation transiting the Panama and Suez canals.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.640238485995545.1073741833.117142148305184&type=1

More on the project here:

http://yvan-bourgnon.fr/

And a rough bing translate on the objectives of the attempt:

Carry out the first World Tour with a non-habitable sailboat on a category of sport of 6.3 meters long. This would lead on another first: the World Tour on a boat less than 6.5 meters.

• Demonstrate to the public that we can achieve human-sized challenges without being obliged to spend vast sums, deliver adventure at the centre of the debates.

• Departure: 5 October 2013 of Sables D'olonne for an adventure of 11 months with stopovers and 50,000 kms to the counter!

• No assistance, no gps (navigation to the sextant): return to simple values of navigation

• Selected crew: Vincent Beauvarlet, former champion of the young world of windsurfing

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Going thru the Suez canal and pirate alley in an open small boat borders on insanity. Plenty of obstacles from the sea but this is asking for more trouble than he-or anyone could handle.

 

All I can say is thank goodness for insane people. Some would say flying AC72's on foils in San Francisco Bay is insane and an unacceptable risk.

 

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You don't see a difference between flying AC 72's on foils in San Fran Bay and taking a small boat thru one of the worlds most pirate infested areas?

 

Not really it's a simple risk assessment not unlike the type we make every day. For example about 12 months ago I was involved in a car accident I entered an intersection on a green light and from the side where I was unsighted (crossing a railway line) a car T boned me and took the front off my car totally destroying it. If I'd been in that intersection one second earlier I would not be here typing this response. Due to the accident I could make a judgement that driving is an unacceptable risk but that would make life difficult so instead I accept the risk and continue driving.

Being shot or having your throat cut by pirates or perishing due to being pinned between a hull and a mast on an AC72 is ultimately the same effect i.e. your dead it's up to the individual to decide whether they are willing to take the risk. I hope it always stays that way.

 

Corley,

I hope you get your wish.
Too much nanny state as it is.
Next thing they will do is tell us we can't fly in airplanes, the wheels might fall off.

 

It's been done before by many people, just not on a cat. Many monoslows have made the trip and Webb chiles did it in an 18' open drascombe Lugger. So the statement of a first of a "non hapitable boat" isn't true.

However, I fully support this effort. People get so caught up trying to say what is right for other people. If he wants to die trying an insane effort, go for it. Want to know how to land on mars right now? Stop being so cautious and just start launching them. Eventually one will make it. My .02

 

I don't know how they define "non habitable" the boats you have mentioned while open had some ability to be habitable within the hull. On this cat they are basically on top of it with a bench in which they can put a sleeping bag on the windward side of the boat.

 

I suppose a defination of habitable could be in or on the vessel.

 

I also wonder what their definition is and how they are arriving at it. The open boats in my mind offer no more protection than the amount of freeboard they have to duck behind. The cat will be a true tramp experience for sure.

There was a guy who attempted to cross the Atlantic on a beach cat of some sort maybe 3 years ago? Set out from the Azores and ran into some bad weather a few hours out and this or that broke so he limped back in. Have not heard from him since that attempt.

Im excited about this as I fully support the main goal, to show you don't need to be rich to have rich adventures. Im an avid supporter of small boats and micro-cruising and hopefully will be undertaking some long coastal challenges on my Woods Strike 18 once I finish in the next few months.

 

Australian Tony Laurent was crew on a Hobie 18 or 20 that crossed the Atlantic from the canaries in 1986

http://www.sail.ie/misc/cats_atlantic.htm

cheers

Phil

 

I was crewing on a 50 foot cat and we were in Auckland harbour in 1978 when a 21 foot french GRP cat cleared in through customs with a couple onboard. They had sailed mostly coastal all the way from Sth France and had come through the Red Sea.

They had one berth inside one hull and often slept on the tramp. Their outboard had been stolen along the way and they had no safety equipment nor radio. The Tasman was the longest trip they had done offshore and they were over it even though they made good time from Sydney of around 2 weeks.
They were looking for a larger boat to carry on into the Pacific. I always thought that was an incredible feat and I'm forever annoyed I didn't get their details.

Two years ago I was in Sydney and anchored in balls head bay with the only other boat being a 30 foot dutch monohull that had just been sailed from Holland.
There are some mad people around

 

I'll do some research on that French cat, MJ, know a couple of people who might remember, though I don't, which is unusual being so multi biased, ha - as according to CT.
ps, working on a monohull at this moment, new rudder, deck and cockpit repaint, contemplating DSS foil addition.

 

The team that failed recently in the Transat beach cat attempt were Jrata3 sailing the same cat that had made the crossing previously as "Octo Finances" a Transat Dakar to Guadaloupe

There is an old entry on my blog about it. The existing crewed record stands at 11days 11h 25m 42s set in 2007 by the French Benoît Lequin and Pierre Yves Moreau on “OCTO FINANCES”.

Also of interest is that a singlehanded beachcat record was set over the same course in 2008 by Vittorio Malingri of 13days, 17 hours and 48 minutes. The record was set on 6.09metre beachcat.

http://trimaranproject.blogspot.com.au/search?q=transatlantic beach cat

 

• Demonstrate to the public that we can achieve human-sized challenges without being obliged to spend vast sums, deliver adventure at the centre of the debates.

• No assistance, no gps (navigation to the sextant): return to simple values of navigation


Well that's fine as long as some country doesn't have to spend "vast sums" or "assistance" rescuing them. If they get in trouble then they should go down with the ship.