IBSA
2.2.2024 14:33:26 CET | Business Wire | Press release
After a thorough overhaul in the shipyard to prepare the boat for the 2024 transoceanic races, the third season of the Class40 IBSA will start with two monumental tests, scheduled between April and July. As holder of first place in the international Class40 Circuit and the 24-hour Class40 distance record, both achieved during the 2023 season, Alberto Bona is getting ready to participate in the Transat CIC, to be held between April and May, and in the Transat Québec Saint-Malo, scheduled between June and July, to then complete the season with the Normandy Channel Race.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240202006265/en/
“We called it the season of courage”, stated Giorgio Pisani, Vice President IBSA Group and Leader of the project Sailing into the Future. Together. “But it will also be the season of maturity, for both Alberto and our project. In 2023 we achieved great sporting results, but also human ones, thanks to the commitment, consistency and resolution in completing the objectives we had set for ourselves. The 2024 season promises to be exciting: behind us, we have the experience that we strategically need to best manage the planned programme, while in our hearts is the courage to face any challenge, with the enthusiasm of the first day”.
“This third season with the Class40 IBSA”, commented Bona, “opens with a legendary regatta. I have enormous respect for this course, which I have never done; it’s a new challenge for me: a challenging route in the North Atlantic, in the first months of the season, very difficult due to wind, sea and current conditions. We are making some changes to the boat, in order to be best prepared for this first solo transoceanic. It’s important work”, continued Alberto, “which requires time and accurate assessments. On paper, it’s the most difficult regatta I have ever done. A beautiful adventure, also for IBSA, with a season that will take us to America and on less travelled routes; a season which I hope will be greatly satisfactory for everyone. I used to dream with the great navigators’ stories of the OSTAR, and I didn’t think that one day I would be able to do it myself... especially with a Class40!”.
The season will begin on April 28, with the Transat CIC, the new name of the oldest transoceanic regatta, the first edition of which took place in 1960. Then it was called the OSTAR; later it was renamed 1 Star and today is simply known as The Transat. Legendary names in ocean sailing have won it, from Sir Francis Chichester to Eric Tabarly. “This Transat is also the regatta in which the world discovered the great talent of Ellen MacArthur, who made her debut at just 23 years of age in this very difficult race”, recalled Bona. “It’s a solo regatta for which I have great expectations. I’m happy to go back to solo sailing after a season spent entirely with a crew. After the 2022 Route du Rhum, finding myself alone on the Class40 IBSA with so much more experience and knowledge of the boat is a great challenge”.
Anticipation is huge, after the 2020 edition was cancelled due to the pandemic: the regatta will therefore start again from the 15th edition, eight years after the previous one. The race will depart from Lorient, Brittany, on April 28 (the village will start celebrating on April 23), and arrive in New York, after over 3,000 miles of solo sailing. There will be a maximum of 80 boats at the start: 25 Class40s, 35 IMOCAs, 10 Ocean Fiftys and 10 vintage sailing boats, with registrations closing on January 31. The Class40 IBSA is automatically qualified, thanks to her participation in the 2022 Route du Rhum.
Sailing under the Statue of Liberty will certainly be a great thrill, as will be carrying the Class40 IBSA even further north, up to Canada, with an unforgettable 1,200 mile journey that will lead to the second, and equally legendary, challenge – the Transat Quebec Saint-Malo, one of the few Atlantic regattas sailed “in reverse”, from West to East, crossing the Northern waters and navigating for over 300 miles along a river, the St. Lawrence, in Canada. Now in its 10th edition – it also did not take place four years ago, due to COVID – and dedicated to the Ultim, Class40, IMOCA, Ocean Fifty and Mono and multihull categories between 45 and 65 feet, the Québec Saint-Malo is a regatta for a crew of three. Sailors will start on June 30 and – after dealing with the waters of the North Atlantic – will land in Saint-Malo, where three years ago everything began for the Class40 IBSA, with the departure for the Route du Rhum.
“After the Quebec Saint-Malo”, concluded Alberto, “we will be back in the La Trinité shipyard to get ready for the last event of the year, the Normandy Channel Race. These three regattas will, I hope, allow us to defend our Class40 championship title. It will be another challenging season for everyone, with thousands of miles behind and hopefully with more good results”.
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 unites 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 18 subsidiaries located in Europe, China, and the United States. The company has a consolidated turnover of 900 million CHF, and employs over 2,200 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. |
For more information visit www.ibsasailing.com/en/
To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240202006265/en/
About Business Wire
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
Rapid Medical™’s TIGERTRIEVER™ 13 Demonstrates Promising 90-Day Outcomes in DISTALS Trial, Reinforcing Pivotal Safety and Efficacy Findings7.5.2026 14:03:00 CEST | Press release
Full data presented at ESOC 2026 further strengthen the clinical evidence supporting TIGERTRIEVER™ 13 for the treatment of distal vessel occlusion stroke — a segment representing nearly half of all ischemic strokes Rapid Medical™, a leading developer of advanced stroke treatment devices, today announced full results from the DISTALS randomized clinical trial, presented at the 11th European Stroke Organisation Conference (ESOC) in Maastricht, Netherlands, showing that TIGERTRIEVER™ 13 can safely restore blood flow to the brain and may improve clinical outcomes in patients with distal and medium vessel occlusion (DMVO) stroke. These findings build on earlier results showing a threefold improvement in restoring blood flow compared with medical management alone (p<0.0001), with no cases of serious brain bleeding observed in the treatment group. “These results show we can now safely restore blood flow and suggest this will make a meaningful difference for the right patients,” said Jeffrey L
2 Million Downloads in Six Months: Tabelog’s Multilingual App Solves Critical Dining Pain Points for Travelers to Japan7.5.2026 14:00:00 CEST | Press release
“Eat Where Locals Eat” Making authentic Japanese dining experiences accessible to global travelers through instant reservations at over 70,000 restaurants nationwide. Tabelog (https://tabelog.com/en/), one of Japan’s largest (*1) restaurant search and reservation services operated by Kakaku.com, Inc., has announced that its multilingual smartphone app (iOS/Android) for travelers visiting Japan has reached 2 million downloads (*2). This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260507560248/en/ 2M+ Downloads in 6 Months. The app also ranked #1 in downloads among Restaurant Search Apps in Japan for International Travelers (*3) in Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea, and the U.S., reflecting its immense popularity among global visitors. Download URL: https://tabelog-tourists.onelink.me/3eEh/iqkkho9r The Trusted Choice for Global Travelers: Solving Two Major Dining Pain Points in Japan For years, international visitors to Japan have
Altasciences and Certara Announce Strategic Partnership to Accelerate Early Drug Development7.5.2026 14:00:00 CEST | Press release
Altasciences, a fully integrated drug development solution company, andCertara (Nasdaq: CERT), a global leader in model-informed drug development (MIDD), today announced a strategic partnership to accelerate early-phase development programs. Fewer than half of preclinical drug candidates successfully reach first-in-human trials. Failures are driven by toxicity, poor pharmacokinetics, lack of efficacy, and challenges translating results from animals to humans. Many of these risks can be mitigated through a fully integrated model-informed drug development approach. Building on Altasciences’ Acceleration Platform, the integration of Certara’s strategic drug development services and biosimulation technology enables sponsors to establish proof of mechanism earlier, design more efficient studies, and make informed go/no-go decisions with greater confidence. By embedding modeling insights and digital workflows directly into development execution, study designs are optimized, dosing strategies
FIFA and Fanatics Expand Wide-Ranging Relationship to Include Historic Exclusive Collectibles Agreement (Trading Cards, Stickers and Trading Card Games)7.5.2026 13:00:00 CEST | Press release
Partnership includes FIFA tournaments and events from 2031Agreement encompasses both physical and digital collectibles, and for the first time brings the player jersey patch program to international footballPre-match press conferences for the FIFA World Cup Final to take place at Fanatics Fest on Friday, 17 July 2026 In a landmark agreement expanding their already successful wide-ranging commercial relationship, FIFA and Fanatics have signed a long-term, exclusive collectibles licensing deal that features trading cards, stickers, and trading card games. The agreement, which will begin in full in 2031, covers both physical and digital collectibles. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260507105628/en/ An example of the product innovations that will be brought to fans under this new partnership is the highly sought-after player jersey patch program, including debut patches, which will be inserted into football tradin
DEFINITIVE Trial Reaches Major Milestone: All Centres Approved and More Than 50% Recruitment Achieved7.5.2026 11:21:00 CEST | Press release
Poster presented at ESMO Breast Cancer 2026: Exploring health policy and real-world treatment strategies for early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer across Europe. The DEFINITIVE project, a landmark European Union-funded international phase III clinical trial evaluating the use of the HER2DX diagnostic assay to guide personalised treatment in early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer (BC), announces two major operational milestones at the ESMO Breast Cancer 2026 congress. Approvals have been obtained in the 7 participating countries, 33 clinicals sites are now open for patient recruitment. The trial has reached over 50% of its recruitment target, marking a pivotal moment on the path toward to transforming HER2-positive BC treatment. About the DEFINITIVE Project The DEFINITIVE project is a 5-year, prospective, open-label, randomised, two-arm phase III international clinical trial conducted across 44 centres in 7 European member states and associated countries. The trial aims to demonstrat
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom