Yann Quenet
Frenchman sails around the world – in a four meter long self-built sailing boat
Yann Quénet on board his “Baluchon”. After three years of sailing around the world, the Frenchman has arrived in Brittany in his sailing boat.
© Damien Meyer / AFP
Yann Quénet was on the road for three years. The Frenchman has sailed around the world in a self-built sailing boat. Now he has arrived back in France on board his “Baluchon”. And happy to see his family again.
A Frenchman has sailed around the world in a homemade sailboat that is only four meters long. Yann Quénet ended his three-year trip around the world on Tuesday evening in Brittany, north-western France, on board the “Baluchon”, which he had built for just 4,000 euros. “It was an old dream, and I made my dream come true,” said the early fifties-year-old after his arrival in the port of Trébeurden.
It is “a little sad” that the world trip is now over, Quénet told the AFP news agency. But he was “happy at the same time” to see his family again.
From France across the Atlantic
Quénet left in spring 2019 and first crossed the Atlantic. He then sailed the non-motorized “Baluchon” across the Pacific to the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia. After Tahiti and New Caledonia, the Frenchman actually wanted to stop in New Zealand and Australia, but had to cancel the project because of the corona pandemic.
He therefore sailed in 77 days from New Caledonia’s capital Nouméa directly to the French island of La Réunion near Madagascar. A major challenge was his supplies of water and food. Each time it left a port, the little sailboat was filled with canisters of water, between which Quénet barely had room to lie down.