In June 2022, Bureau Veritas, a world leader in testing, inspection and certification, has awarded the “Approval In Principle” to the pioneering vessel Le Manta – a major recognition for the giant of the seas, before its launch in 2025.

The Manta is a unique concentrate of innovations: its biomimetic design
The first factory boat to collect, process and recycle large quantities of plastics on board by its biomimetic design.

75% energy self-sufficiency.
Up to 10,000 tonnes of plastic collected per year.

The Manta will operate in areas of high concentration such as the mouths of large rivers, estuaries and in coastal waters.
It will also host scientific missions and awareness-raising operations.

A talented Franco-Swiss skipper, Yvan Bourgnon started sailing at the age of eight with his parents for a round-the-world voyage where he discovered the ocean that he would never leave.

Over the course of his career, Yvan has built up an impressive racing record in sports multihulls and also in offshore races on the most performing boats.

With his elder brother, Laurent Bourgnon, he won the Transat Jacques-Vabre in 1997.

Holder of several world records, he pushes sailing to the extreme by embarking on a series of unprecedented solo adventures on his uninhabitable catamaran, without instruments and without assistance, including a round-the-world race from 2013 to 2015 and the Northwest Passage linking Greenland to Alaska in 2017.

These exploits were unanimously acclaimed throughout the world.

Today, with The SeaCleaners, of which he is Chairman and Founder, he is taking on a new environmental challenge and wishes to develop an effective and concrete solution to combat plastic pollution in the seas: the Manta project.