From Antibes to La Trinité-sur-Mer: the Class40 IBSA goes back home

In September, the month when everything starts once again, also Alberto Bona’s training on the Class40 IBSA has resumed, in view of the last regatta of the season, the Transat Jacques Vabre.

The programme for the next thirty days has been set to the minute, between training sessions at sea and makeup in the shipyard, aimed at making the necessary changes and improvements to the boat after the efforts of the last few months of racing. It all takes place in La Trinité-sur-Mer, the Breton town where Alberto and his team had their headquarters for over a year, and where the Class40 IBSA returned after spending the last few weeks in the south of France, in Antibes, where they also met the collaborators of IBSA France.

For the third time, Alberto and the team have chosen – with a view to sustainability and responsibility towards the environment – to take the greener route, opting for the transfer by sea, so as to avoid road transport. Hence, on September 7, Bona and boat captain Pierre-Eduard Regaud set off from Antibes towards La Trinité-sur-Mer.

“The transfer went very well”, commented Alberto. “We took turns sleeping in shifts of around four hours, so we also managed to rest. When there was no wind, we worked hard to sail at full speed, studying some small changes still to be made on board”.

The wind, however, was not long in coming: “We passed the Strait of Gibraltar against the wind and against the sea; it was 24 hours of intense upwind. We then decided to stop a couple of hours in Cadiz for a quick resupplying”, continued Bona, “and then set sail again towards Cape de Sao Vicente, after which the ascent from Portugal to Cabo Finisterre began. After Lisbon, another long upwind stretch and then a small weather ridge, followed by a nice depression that quickly pushed the Class40 IBSA northwards, up to the Bay of Biscay”.

An intense navigation, therefore, which however also allowed moments of leisure, “study” and wonder: “I had with me also two brand new volumes by Jean-Yves Bernot on meteorology”, said Bona, “which I devoured with great interest. Furthermore, in moments of little wind, we enjoyed some unexpected encounters, such as a majestic hammerhead shark that one morning we saw swimming under IBSA; it’s been a truly beautiful moment, but we also saw many turtles and dolphins, who sailed together with us.”

After all these wonders and 11 days of navigation, last September 18 the Class40 IBSA finally landed in Trinité-sur-Mer.