It’s just after 4:30 pm on July 15 when Alberto Bona, Luca Rosetti and Pablo Santurde del Arco crossed the finish line of the Transat Québec Saint-Malo in sixth position.In the official ranking, however, they close the regatta in seventh place,due to the compensation rightly granted to Antoine Magré’s E. Leclerc – Ville La Grand, which came to the rescue of Alberto Riva’s Acrobatica and her crew, who sank last July 9.
Less than two hours before arrival, a Southerly wind picked up in Saint-Malo, brushing the port’s outer breakwater – crowded with people who had gathered there to follow live the crossing of the finish line – and forcing the crews, after 2,800 miles, to proceed close-hauled along the Breton coast, between rocks and lighthouses.
The Class40 IBSA crossed the finish line, and immediately on board a triple hug exploded, crowning a very difficult regatta and the excellent atmosphere between the three sailors, who – they will recount later – knew right away how to work as a team.
It will take another two hours and three downpours to unlock the locks, return to the port, touch land and finally be able to hug the three sailors, exhausted but satisfied with their great feat. “A very difficult – and in many ways unprecedented – regatta”, told Alberto. “We had to chase a lot, but we were always in the game, focused and determined not to let a risky choice like that of going North hold us hostage”.
The Great North, together with the first day and the first night of navigation along the river, were the absolute protagonists of this regatta: “The St. Lawrence River was rough”, recounted Rosetti;“the little wind, the currents and the very narrow regatta field were decisive ingredients: the quality of the racers was very high; you couldn’t lose your concentration even for a second”.
“The choice to go North after Newfoundland”, recalled Pablo Santurde del Arco, “was probably a mistake, but what I really liked was that we didn’t give up and we regained our position mile after mile”.
In this trial, the psychological component was very important, especially when the race simulation models indicated a potential gap of as much as 400 miles from the leader, while at sea the actual one was already 240 miles. “We didn’t give up; we found a depression forming”, added Alberto, “we rode it and got back into the game”.
Meanwhile, the Great North gave unprecedented scenarios, a new experience in an almost frozen sea full of life: the descent to the South was accompanied by dozens of pilot whales, which played with the waves created by the boats. In evoking this event, there is a flash in Alberto’s eyes, the memory of something unique, which has already become an experience, a reference to that sea of ice, a “I had never sailed this far North” which is a new element in the history of the Class40 IBSA and her crew.
