François Gabart, the Frenchman who won the Vendée Globe in 2013 at just 29, smashing the event record in the process, is swapping solo ocean racing for something quieter: a round-the-world voyage with his family. Months of refitting his catamaran for the trip have culminated in the centrepiece of that work, a new engine.
The boat has been repowered with a Nanni N4.80, a decision Gabart puts down to trust built over more than a decade.
That relationship began during his years racing in the Figaro Class, where the compact Nanni N3.21, a Kubota-based 3-cylinder unit producing 19.6 hp, powered Figaro Bénéteau monohulls across the fleet. Gabart went on to set a solo round-the-world record in 2017 aboard his Macif trimaran, and in 2019 founded MerConcept, a company focused on maritime innovation in competitive sailing.
"At the time, all the Figaro boats were already equipped with Nanni engines, and it's true that I still have a lot of trust in these engines, in this brand," Gabart said. "And I'm happy to continue this story after these years of Figaro."
The N4.80 is built around a 4-cylinder Kubota block and produces 80 hp, with high torque at low rpm designed for long-distance cruising rather than racing. Nanni says the engine's compact layout also makes routine maintenance easier to reach, useful for a sailor who won't always be near a workshop.
That mattered to Gabart.
"What we wanted was to have something reliable, simple and efficient, that I would also be able to maintain easily, even when I'm on the other side of the world," he said.
The refit was carried out with support from Méca Diesel, Nanni's official distributor for the Brittany region, based in Concarneau, the same town that hosts MerConcept. With the distributor just metres from the project, its technical team could stay closely involved throughout.
Nanni notes that its worldwide network of approved agents will support Gabart's voyage wherever he ends up.
