The first regatta of the season – the Transat CIC – is getting closer

The third season of the three-year project Sailing into the Future. Together will see Alberto Bona and the Class40 IBSA engaged in some of the most challenging regattas on the international sailing scene. The first appointment is a “return to origins”, a solo ocean crossing, as famous as it is tough: the Transat CIC, which was originally known as The English Transat – or OSTAR – and which later became 1 Star, to be now simply called The Transat.

The Transat CIC is famous for the participation of some of the greatest sailing legends, from Éric Tabarly – who gloriously won it in 1964, completing it in just 27 days – to François Gabart, the French skipper who arrived second in the Route du Rhum 2022 in the Ultim class and won the Rolex Fastnet Race 2023.

The one that will start on April 28, 2024, will be the 15^th edition of the Transat CIC, a regatta which has been taking place every four years from 1960 until 2016, only skipping the 2020 edition due to the pandemic. The departure city of the Transat CIC has always been Plymouth (UK) – hence the nickname “English Transat” – but the 2024 edition will start from Lorient, the putative capital of French sailing. Over the years, the arrival has involved several ports in North America, including Newport, Boston and New York; and it will be precisely the Big Apple that will welcome the skippers competing in the 2024 edition.

The expected mileage from Lorient to New York is 3,500, to be sailed along a Northern route of the Atlantic Ocean, very difficult due to wind, sea and current conditions, and very challenging for all competing classes. Eighty boats will be on the starting line: 35 IMOCAs, 10 Ocean Fiftys, 10 Vintage Sailboats and 25 Class40s, including Bona and many of the opponents he encountered during last season’s regattas.

One man, one boat, the ocean is the slogan of this regatta, which Alberto describes as “legendary” and which, in less than two months, he will face single-handed together with the Class40 IBSA, just like their first crossing.