This glorious regatta starts from and arrives in Caen, after grazing Normandy and Ireland. A 1,000-mile route along the south-west English coast, through the English Channel and the Celtic Sea, between islands, capes and lighthouses – including the Fastnet, on the legendary rock of the same name: the third appointment in the calendar of Alberto Bona and the Class40 IBSA is the Normandy Channel Race.
Born in 2010 and taking place every year in spring (although one edition every four years is held in September), the Normandy Channel Race is a regatta entirely dedicated to the Class40 and provides for a crew of two. Now in its 14th edition, the Normandy Channel Race 2023 will start on Sunday, June 4, from the port of Ouistreham, just over 15 km from Caen, in Normandy.
It’s an undoubtedly difficult and enthralling trial, conditioned by the tides and weather of the Celtic Sea: it has so many conspicuous points and passages that following it is like immersing yourself in a sea novel. The 1,000-mile Normandy Channel Race requires plenty of tactics and strategy, as well as a great knowledge of currents and tides.
The Normandy Channel Race 2023 will once again see Alberto Bona in crew with Spanish sailor Pablo Santurde del Arco, who in his prize record also boasts a first, second and third place in past editions of the regatta. On the starting line, the Class40 IBSA will also find its direct opponents of the first two regattas of the 2023 season: the French Lipinski and the Italian Beccaria, who – crewed together – won the Normandy Channel Race 2022.