Bubble sweep-down is a significant issue for the oceanographic vessels, which affect the acoustic surveys. Experimental trials, carried out in the Ifremer wave and current circulating tank on a 1/30 model of the Pourquoi pas?, are presented. The results demonstrate that this kind of experimental facility is well suited to study the phenomenon of bubble sweep-down encountered around the bow of a ship under specific conditions. From these results, two kinds of bubble clouds formation have been observed and analysed: bubble clouds generated by vortex shedding and breaking waves. The vortex shedding bubble clouds appear randomly in all the configurations tested, even without waves or motions. This phenomenon is due to the interaction between the turbulent flow and the specific bow shape of the Pourquoi pas?. On the other hand, the breaking wave clouds appear in the presence of relative motions between the free surface and the bow ship and more significantly under wave sollicitations. A complementary paper presents a parametric study carried out to quantify the influence of the test conditions.