IBSA

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.

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