Saint-Brieuc (AFP)

His four-meter sailboat, which he designed and built himself for 4,000 euros, looks like a nutshell. However, Yann Quénet has just crossed two oceans aboard his "Baluchon" and disconnects at Hiva Oa, in the Marquesas (French Polynesia).

Crossing the Atlantic and the Pacific with such a boat, "it's a real feat", assures AFP the navigator Yvan Bourgnon, for whom "Baluchon" "is a real gem".

The starting challenge? Build a sailboat in 400 hours for 4,000 euros in order to go around the world. The challenge and "the boat-equipment budget were respected", confirms Yann Quénet, Breton from Saint-Brieuc, contacted by Messenger. The sailor conceded, however, "1,500 additional euros" for a distress beacon, an autopilot and solar panels ....

Such a budget, he continues, "implies (that I have) no means of communication with the earth and no weather. I only used the GPS of a conventional tablet with free mapping in open source as means of navigation ".

"No engine on board, just a sail and a scull," he adds. No need to take reefs when the wind gets stronger, the sail wraps around the mast.

As for water, in the absence of a watermaker, "I rationed myself to two liters a day".

- "The Optimist of ocean racing" -

"His sailboat is absolute simplicity, it is the Optimist of ocean racing", summarizes Yvan Bourgnon, with reference to the small dinghy designed after the Second World War on which young mosses are still doing today their first ranges today.

"My dream is to sail around the world but without constraint", explains the solitary, 50 years old, who, in ordinary life, designs and sells plans of ships to individuals. "For me, having a big boat really takes too much time and energy, it's complicated and stressful. Having a simpler boat, paradoxically, opens the way to freedom and travel", says the one who has done several deckchairs on conventional sailboats.

For this small red and white keelboat, with a rectangular bow so as not to bake in the wave, entirely built in 9 mm plywood, "everything has been very well thought out. It meets what Yann wanted, maximum autonomy" , explains Hervé Le Merrer, another "adventurer" of the seas, as he defines himself.

- "it sometimes seems unreal" -

"Of course, space is limited (...) But he designed a superb little boat that will be talked about", predicts Didier Corfec, Bourgnon's preparer and old friend of Yann Quénet. Because, towable on a trailer, "Baluchon" also has the capacity to "return to its keel automatically if it turns around"!

For Yvan Bourgnon, "not only has he done everything himself since the first stroke of the pencil, but in addition, we cannot go around the world in a greener way (...) It is enormous what it is realizing ".

Leaving in the autumn of the Canaries, Yann Quénet landed a little in Guadeloupe before taking the Panama Canal and launching an assault on the Pacific: 44 days at sea, including "more than 30 days without having of his news "until arriving at Hiva Oa, recalls Hervé Le Merrer.

The autonomy sought paid for. "So far I have not encountered any major technical difficulties. As the boat is simplified as much as possible, everything has worked perfectly", notes Yann Quénet.

And the reward is there: "Seeing your small sailboat that you designed and built yourself speeding down the great waves of the ocean, seeing the distant islands appearing on the horizon that you have always dreamed of, everything it gives a real feeling of joy, it sometimes even seems unreal, it's so intense! ".

To tell the truth, confinement, apart from the reduced space of his boat, Yann Quénet hardly knew it. In the Marquesas, it's time for deconfinement. And later await Australia and the Cape of Good Hope.

Expected return to Brittany in 2022.

© 2020 AFP