Yann Guichard

President, co-founder

• Nationality : french
• On board role : Skipper
• Number of world tours : 1

Having spent his childhood in Brittany, Yann Guichard studied sport in La Rochelle before going on to discover the Tornado at 20 years of age. Fourth at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, the Frenchman also turned his attentions to offshore multihulls. A prized crew and helmsman, for 10 years he combined Olympic preparations, inshore and offshore racing. 

In 2011, Yann Guichard and his wife Dona Bertarelli co-founded the Spindrift stable. Enjoying a challenge, three years later he pulled off the feat of racing solo on Spindrift 2, the largest racing maxi-trimaran ever built, in the Route du Rhum 2014, finishing in 2nd place. Title-holder of the crewed Discovery Route record and double champion of the Rolex Fastnet Race in 2013 then 2015, Yann Guichard set sail with his crew on his first Jules Verne Trophy attempt in 2015-16, securing the third best time in the record’s history in 47 days 10 hours 59 minutes (fourth fastest outright). Already the winner of the Bol d’Or Mirabaud in 2014, he repeated this performance in 2019 in truly appalling weather conditions. That same year, Ladycat bowed out of competition to give way to the new TF35.

In 2021, the couple and her children founded Sails of Change, a community of sports and nature lovers who want to create a sustainable future for our planet. The livery on both the racing stable’s boats sport a design comprising the green of the earth and the blue of the ocean, alongside the #30×30 logo, the first campaign supported by Sails of Change. 30 by 30 is a global call for action to protect at least 30% of the ocean and the earth by 2030.

Today, Yann Guichard helms the TF35 Spindrift, a latest generation foiling catamaran designed to fly. In 2021 and 2022, the team finished 3rd in the championship.

With the Spindrift team, he’s also preparing for his next Jules Verne Trophy record attempt on the maxi-trimaran Sails of Change with 40 days, 23 hours and 30 minutes being the time to beat.

In 2021, Dona Bertarelli and Yann Guichard were appointed Patrons of Nature for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), an organisation which supports #30×30, thus joining a group who have a real passion for the environment and use their talents to support the IUCN mission “for a just world which values and conserves nature”.