Cowes-Dinard

English Channel record smashed on a 20-foot catamaran!

Yvan Bourgnon is a specialist in all kinds of challenges as long as they are under sail... and he wasn’t going to pass up a great weather window on August 28, 2022: three days previously, he’d taken the ferry from France and headed for the Isle of Wight, off the south coast of England. Supported by Paul Melot, an experienced crew member who has been sailing on an ETF26 with Yvan for the past two seasons, the skipper was able to prepare his Nacra F20.

Cowes-Dinard

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Published 29/08/2022

By Dick Sawyer

Issue: 185

Published: sept. / oct. 2022

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The day before the start, the pair were pretty confident: “A decent easterly flow should propel us quickly towards the Normandy coast. We'll have to manage the passage with a little bit of sea, between 3 and 5 feet, and wind gusting to 25 knots. On a catamaran of under 20 feet in length, this should promise some rather sporty sailing. Once we reach the Alderney Race, the sea will flatten out, as we’ll have the tide with us. This will allow us to glide very quickly towards the finish in Dinard and hope to beat the record of 11:22:47”.

The pair set out from the English coast at 10:24 am French time and immediately got ahead of the reference time, making a few peaks of over 20 knots. The Nacra arrived in Dinard just after 7 pm, setting the new record for the 20-foot catamaran category at 8 hours 37 minutes 19 seconds at an average speed of 15.95 knots (before WSSRC certification).

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