Sailing, Ambrogio Beccaria wins the fourth leg of the Ocean Race Europe
The young Milanese sailor wins the Genoa leg after some unforeseen nightmares
3' min read
3' min read
There is a young man from Milan, but a real Milanese, who is devoting himself to ocean sailing, preparation for the greatest solo race around the world without a stopover, the Vendee Globe. His name is Ambrogio Beccaria, his boat Allagrande, his sponsor Mapei. The sailing-ocean association always turns the public's gaze towards Giovanni Soldini, who has given us so many thrills and who is now inside the Ferrari Hypersail project. Ambrogio can be considered one of Giovanni's successors, a brood of sailors who love big horizons more than racing between the buoys. Last night Ambrogio won the fourth stage with arrival in Genoa of the Ocean Race Europe, a sort of redemption after the not-so-happy start in Kiel on 10 August, when there was a brutal collision between Allagrande and Team Holcin PRB that forced the two boats to numerous repairs.
For Beccaria these are important moments: for him it is his debut in the Imoca 60 class, powerful boats that are definitely more powerful than the Class 40s and Minitransats he has sailed with so far. Sailing with him for the handover is the boat's former skipper Thomas Ruyant, who knows it well. She is one of the fastest and most modern. The stage he won started from Nice, a short course where Ambrogio was able to position himself well while waiting for the wind that then pushed him towards the finish line at great speed. Beccaria recounts: "The descent down Corsica was complex, with wide windward-leeward conditions in which the boat struggled a bit to take off. But then, the exit from the Bocche di Bonifacio was simply magnificent: we flew at 20 knots upwind, a sensation we had never experienced before. In Sardinia, we sailed close to the places where I learnt to sail: really special moments, with friends and boats that came to say hello to us".
Even a short regatta always has some unforeseen events: "But the most critical moment came," continues Beccaria, "during a long tack towards La Spezia: without power on board, we were completely in the dark, without instruments, without a connection. I steered at night 'blind' while Morgan tried to solve the problem. After more than an hour, fortunately, we managed to restore everything. And it was incredible to discover that, in those very two hours in the dark, we had overtaken our competitors.
The Ocean Race Europe started in Kiel, stopped in Portsmouth, Porto, Cartagena, Nice and after Genoa will arrive in Montenegro in the famous Boka Kotorska Bay, a place steeped in sailing history, now a destination for yachts and megayachts. Leading the way is Biotherm, which seems difficult to dislodge from its supremacy. Allagrande Mapei is now fourth behind Holcin PRB.
The Ocean Race, next to be held in 2027, is the heir to the famous Whitbread Round The World Race, the first crewed round-the-world race that for many years was the reference for lovers of this type of racing, and we remember the participation of Giorgio Falk. After years of various evolutions and boat changes, which is a bit boring to recount, now both the Ocean Race, the top crewed event, and the Vendee Globe, use the same Imoca 60 crewed and solo boats.
