Yesterday Alberto Bona arrived at the headquarters of the American subsidiary, in New Jersey, to spend the day with the collaborators of IBSA USA,thus reciprocating the celebrations received by the team upon his arrival in New York.
A warm welcome, a great participation and plenty of involvement, with several questions to learn about ocean navigation. For an entire morning they talked about ocean, challenges, navigation and technology, and Alberto immediately felt at home. In the hall, a wonderful model of the Class40 IBSA,and along the walls the videos and images of the adventures of the project Sailing Into the Future. Together, with the sketches of the employees’ children who – during a one-day visit to the company – got to know Alberto’s story and drew their own Class40 IBSA. Lots of questions and plenty of curiosity, but also the opportunity for Alberto to talk about the values that unite his adventure and that of IBSA.
“It was a very beautiful moment of interaction”, announced Bona. “People from IBSA USA came on board to see and visit the Class40 IBSA, and today my presence here made it possible to better understand our great project and the boat that crossed the Atlantic”.
In the afternoon Alberto returned to base, at ONE 15 Marina in Brooklyn, where everything is ready for the boatyard phase: the delamination of the hull, possibly due to an impact, was more serious than expected.
“It was probably a collision at sea”, explained the skipper.“Based on our analysis of the marks left outside
and inside the boat, it looks like something grazed and scratched the boat. So now we have to dry her up and take her to a shipyard in Portland, after which we can we begin the safe transfer to Canada”.
Meanwhile, with the awards ceremony held on Sunday, attended by a lot of Britons arrived on board a schooner docked in Lower Manhattan, the Transat CIC was definitely filed away. Three navigators are still sailing, two in the Vintage Class and one in Class40. The very young skipper of Zeiss, Timothé Polet, 23 years old, was rescued by a helicopter 250 miles from the finish line, after a dismasting and a hand injury.
