The Team Was the Protagonist of a Great
Comeback: “A Very Difficult and Unique Test”
Alberto Bona and Class40 IBSA, with Luca Rosetti and Pablo
Santurde del Arco on board, crossed the finish line of the
Transat Québec Saint-Malo at 4:34:42 CEST on July 15, in sixth
position, after covering 2,800 miles in 14 days, 20 hours,
19 minutes and 42 seconds. However, they ended up in seventh
place in the official ranking due to a compensation granted to
Antoine Magré’s E. Leclerc – Ville La Grand for diverting her
course to rescue Acrobatica and Alberto Riva’s crew.
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At dawn on the last day of navigation, the Class40 IBSA – the
protagonist of a sensational comeback of over 230 miles over
the last week – managed to grab the sixth position in a fleet
reduced to 19 boats, after Riva’s wreck and the withdrawal of 5
other boats, including Ambrogio Beccaria’s. The last hours were
very challenging: a disturbance with a Southerly wind favoured
a wonderful upwind finish in front of the Môle des Noires, the
outer breakwater that marks the entrance to the port of
Saint-Malo.
“It was an exciting regatta and I enjoyed it a lot”, stated
Bona, “because we experienced all possible conditions and
different ways of sailing. We spent two days on the river, which
for me was an entirely new experience, then we went through the
banks of Newfoundland, in search of the lows up to the far North,
so much so that we found ourselves 350 miles from Greenland. I had
never sailed so far North, where the sea is a blue I had never
seen. It’s been a difficult race, because the weather was never
constant. When we found ourselves at the back of the fleet – and
the models indicated up to 400 miles of delay – we were not
discouraged. This changed everything: we started to recover,
without ever giving up. Closing less than ten miles from the
leader, given the preconditions, is a good result”.
“The entire IBSA”, announced Antonio Melli, Vice President of
IBSA Group, “followed this regatta with great interest, the
difficulties experienced by the crews, the withdrawals and the
wreck. Seeing that our Class40 – with Alberto Bona, Pablo Santurde
del Arco and Luca Rosetti – finished in seventh position is a great
satisfaction. We saw the commitment and determination, and we are
honoured to have been protagonists of this regatta, which inspired
all of us deeply: a great sporting and human undertaking”.
THE FIRST TIME ON THE RIVER – The Transat Québec
Saint-Malo started at 2:00 pm Canadian time on June 30 from Quebec
City. The impact with the St. Lawrence River, its currents and the
“four seasons in one hour” weather was immediately evident: indeed,
a few minutes from the start a gust of wind hit the fleet, a
harbinger of the many difficulties that characterised this regatta.
The difficult part of the river, represented by the first 140
miles, was covered in about 20 hours by the Class40 IBSA, which
found herself in fourth position: “It was a really intense
regatta”, reported Luca Rosetti. “The exit from the river
was particularly complicated, with much less wind than expected.
Throughout the trial the weather was unstable and made it very
difficult to make decisions. Especially on the river, we fought
like in a race between buoys; these were agitated phases in a
hyper-competitive fleet, everyone always looking for maximum
speed”.
THE BANKS OF TERRANOVA – After 2 days and 6 hours of
navigation, the Class40 IBSA entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence in
sixth position, just 3 miles from the head of the group. The first
500 miles of the race were sailed in this configuration, with about
half of the fleet fighting for the top positions. The next part of
the race saw the passage south of the island of Newfoundland, the
gateway to the Atlantic, and it was not a simple one: around 300
miles with little wind, where the first accident of the regatta
occurred, forcing Italian sailor Claudia Conti to abandon La
Boulangère Bio due to an injury. IBSA left Newfoundland in fifth
place, 5 miles behind the leader, having covered around 800 miles
in five days, with a lighter wind than expected.
THE DANGERS OF THE ATLANTIC – On the sixth day, after
leaving the Newfoundland banks, there was the first turning point
of the regatta: the Class40 IBSA, together with the leading group
of four boats, chose a firm Northern route, with the aim of going
around a low and thus finding themselves in the best conditions to
run fast. However, the chosen strategy turned out to be less
promising than expected: on the morning of July 8, the entire group
found itself in the back. Alberto therefore decided to return to
the great circle, accumulating a 180-mile gap which in the darkest
moment, the afternoon of July 8, would even become 242. “It was
difficult to choose the right route”, explained Bona; “we
were seduced by the North option, and then managing it became very
complicated, especially when the simulations had us 400 miles
behind the leader. We rolled up our sleeves, and we were so far
North that we were caught in a newly formed disturbance, which
allowed us to descend very quickly and recover”.
THE STORM – But it’s when the going gets tough that the
tough really start to play, and Alberto’s team showed great ability
to react. Two long days going upwind, with very strong winds, put
everything and everyone to the test. The Class40 IBSA found herself
in the right position and did not suffer the storm; on the
contrary, she rode it out. She then began to regain mile after
mile, with a high relative speed compared to the leaders,
recovering up to the seventh position and a full 170-mile gap.
“Going this far North was a big risk”, commented Pablo Santurde
del Arco, “but we’ve been very good at putting everything back
into play, managing to react and handle a long and tiring upwind
beat, always leaning and bumping the waves”.
THE ACCIDENTS – Between 9 and 10 July, in an increasingly
complicated regatta, there were two accidents involving Italian
skippers Alberto Riva and Ambrogio Beccaria. Alberto Riva was the
protagonist of a shipwreck caused by a collision with an oil
tanker, while a few hours later Ambrogio Beccaria detected
structural damage to the hull, which was taking on water, thus
forcing him to retire. Both crews repaired to the Azores islands,
welcomed by the local community. “We had very little information in
relation to what happened to Alberto Riva; we were very worried.
When these things happen you realise what the risk is. Knowing they
were okay was a huge relief”, said Bona.
AIR OF HOME – July 11 saw more clement weather; finally
liveable conditions on the boat; the possibility of checking the
hull after the long and wild upwind run; a well-established seventh
position; and 2,000 miles covered. On the night between 14 and 15
July, the Class40 IBSA passed the island of Ouessant and entered
the English Channel, gaining another position: sixth place, ten
miles from the leader, a feat then nullified in the ranking due to
the compensation granted to E. Leclerc for diverting her course to
rescue Acrobatica; thus, the Class40 IBSA was back in seventh place
in the official ranking, released on July 16.
At sea, at 2:00 pm on July 15 the Southerly wind set up an
extraordinary upwind finish in front of the mouth of the port of
Saint-Malo, with many people lined up along the breakwater to
celebrate the arrivals. At the finish line, Alberto Bona, Pablo
Santurde del Arco and Luca Rosetti entered – with a solid three-way
embrace – the history of this difficult regatta.
THE PROJECT: The three-year project
Sailing into the Future. Together was launched in January 2022. The
partnership between IBSA and skipper Alberto Bona was born on
common bases and values, and aims to use sailing as a corporate
communication vehicle towards the market and the nautical world.
Ingenuity, courage, innovation, responsibility are elements that
unite IBSA and Alberto, and the oceanic challenge, in addition to
the sporting competition, also metaphorically represents the
company’s history, philosophy and vision, which are always oriented
towards and are part of a path that brings IBSA increasingly closer
to the topic of environmental and social sustainability, with a
particular focus on inclusive sailing projects for people with
disabilities. In November 2022, the Route du Rhum was the first
sporting stage of the project Sailing into the Future. Together. In
2023, Bona and the Class40 IBSA participated in six regattas,
including the Rolex Fastnet Race and the Transat Jacques Vabre.
With two victories and three podiums, the record for the highest
number of miles covered in 24 hours and over 15,000 miles sailed,
Bona won first place overall in the Class40 International
Championship. In 2024, between April and July, he will face two of
the toughest transatlantic races on the international scene: the
Transat CIC from Lorient (France) to New York and the Quebec
Saint-Malo (from Canada to France).
THE SKIPPER: Alberto Bona is from
Turin, and has a degree in philosophy. As a university student, he
won the Panerai trophy aboard Stormvogel, fast ULDB and historic
boat with which he crossed the Atlantic Ocean for the first time,
winning the ARC with a New Zealand crew. In 2012 he took part in
the Minitransat, finishing 5th, one of the best Italian results
ever in this category. In 2015, he switched to the prototype
category Mini 6.50 with Promostudi La Spezia: he won the Italian
championship and finished second in the ocean crossing Les
Sables-Azores. In 2017 he discovered the Class40: on Giovanni
Soldini’s former Telecom Italia, he participated in the Transat
Jacques Vabre, where he was forced to withdraw when he was in sixth
place. In 2019 he was aboard the Maserati Multi 70 trimaran, one of
the world’s fastest boats, where he practiced on the foils before
moving on to the Figaro Beneteau 3, aboard which he participated in
the Solitaire; the only Italian registered, in 2020 he finished 7th
among the rookies in the first year and 16th overall. In 2021 he
won the Italian offshore team title and the Europeans in mixed
doubles aboard the Figaro 3. In 2022 he started the new project in
partnership with IBSA: after an eighth place in the Route du Rhum
2022, in 2023 Alberto won the Class40 International Championship,
closing a season with three podiums and over 15,000 miles
covered.
THE BOAT: Designed by French naval
architect Sam Manuard and built by the JPS Production shipyard,
Alberto Bona’s boat is a Class40 Mach 5 model. Its main
characteristics are: scow bow – rounded and with a wider and
flatter shape than standard bows – designed to stay high above the
water and avoid being submerged; all-round hull, particularly
performing in conditions of strong tailwinds; and a large, shielded
cockpit, to face extreme conditions of navigation in as comfortable
and safe as possible positions.
IBSA: IBSA (Institut Biochimique
SA) is a Swiss multinational pharmaceutical Company, founded in
1945 in Lugano. Today, its products are present in over 90
countries on 5 continents, through the Company’s 20 subsidiaries
located in Europe, China, and the United States. The company has a
consolidated turnover of 986 million CHF, and employs over 2,300
people between headquarters, subsidiaries and production sites.
IBSA holds 90 families of approved patents, plus others under
development, as well as a vast portfolio of products, covering 10
therapeutic areas: reproductive medicine, endocrinology, pain and
inflammation, osteoarticular, aesthetic medicine, dermatology,
uro-gynaecology, cardiometabolic, respiratory, consumer health. It
is also one of the largest operators worldwide in the area of
reproductive medicine, and one of the world’s leaders in hyaluronic
acid-based products. IBSA has based its philosophy on four pillars:
Person, Innovation, Quality and Responsibility.
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For more information, visit www.ibsasailing.com/en/
Francesca Capodanno – francesca.capodanno@wordpower.srl – mob:
+39 349 881 0482 Benedetta Salemme – benedetta.salemme@noesis.net –
mob. +39 324 800 7570