LUGANO, Switzerland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Three years of intense work, 25,000 miles of racing, five Atlantic crossings, ten regattas, a first and a fourth place in the international Class40 circuit, five podium finishes and two victories: a remarkable human and sporting achievement that combined tenacity, courage, adventure, sustainability and inclusion. This marks the conclusion, after three sporting seasons, of the project that united the multinational pharmaceutical company IBSA with ocean sailor Alberto Bona. An intense journey that began in 2022 with the construction of the Class40 IBSA in France and touched the shores of Brittany, Normandy, England, Ireland, Martinique and Guadeloupe, the United States and Canada.
“We experienced three intense years, during which we took the IBSA brand around the world; a sporting project that allowed ingenuity, courage, perseverance and passion to fully manifest”, announced Arturo Licenziati, President and CEO of IBSA. “It’s been an extraordinary and highly formative journey, capable of narrating and promoting our values alongside Alberto Bona and his team, led by Luca Bertacchi. Thanks to the extraordinary skills of our skipper, we were able to transform a sporting challenge into a symbol of innovation, sustainability and mutual growth”.
The Sailing into the Future. Together journey began in La Trinité-sur-Mer in February 2022, with the construction of the Class40 IBSA, designed by Sam Manuard. The first race, the Route du Rhum, started on November 9, 2022, a few weeks after the boat’s launch, and ended with an excellent finish in the top ten. The 2023 season crowned the success of the Class40 IBSA and Alberto Bona, with the achievement of the 24-hour speed record aboard a Class40, two first-place finishes, several podiums and victory in the International Class Championship, traditionally dominated by French sailors. The 2023 season was marked by collaborations with talented skippers, including Spaniard Pablo Santurde del Arco, with whom Bona shared the majority of the races, and the exceptional Italian sailor Francesca Clapcich. 2024 was the year of the project’s maturity: Alberto returned to solo sailing across the Atlantic in the Transat CIC from Lorient to New York, followed by a return to Europe along the northern route of the Québec Saint-Malo. The season finally ended with a third-place finish at the Normandy Channel Race, in crew with Italian skipper Alberto Riva.
"It has been a very demanding three years: all the people involved in the challenge, with great courage, had to do their best and go beyond their limits to achieve their objectives" – stated skipper Alberto Bona. "I would like to thank Dr. Arturo Licenziati – who believed in us – and the entire IBSA team, who carried forward his vision, enabling us to achieve great results. A heartfelt thank you to my entire team, in particular to our Team Manager Luca Bertacchi, promoter of the initiative and fellow adventurer, with whom I studied and shared every detail of this fantastic ocean sailing campaign".
Bona’s oceanic venture allowed IBSA to gain an in-depth understanding of the world of sailing. Thanks to Sailing into the Future. Together, an important inclusive sailing project for people with disabilities was launched, which will continue in the coming years, in collaboration with the Italian Sailing Federation and numerous sailing clubs in Italy, Switzerland, France, Spain and the USA.
“Alberto Bona showed us how sailing can be a way to discover oneself, test one’s skills and find inner strength to face any challenge. We will apply these principles to the world of inclusive sailing, so that this discipline can give everyone the chance to believe in their abilities, discover their talents and overcome obstacles. Indeed, inclusive sailing initiatives have the great merit of enriching the entire community by promoting a culture of acceptance and respect. This will be our focus in the coming sporting seasons”, concluded Giorgio Pisani, Vice President of IBSA and Project Leader.
THE PROJECT: The three-year project Sailing into the Future. Together was launched in January 2022. The partnership between IBSA and skipper Alberto Bona was born on common bases and values, and aims to use sailing as a corporate communication vehicle towards the market and the nautical world. Ingenuity, courage, innovation, responsibility are elements that unites IBSA and Alberto, and the oceanic challenge, in addition to the sporting competition, also metaphorically represents the company’s history, philosophy and vision, which are always oriented towards and are part of a path that brings IBSA increasingly closer to the topic of environmental and social sustainability, with a particular focus on inclusive sailing projects for people with disabilities. In November 2022, the Route du Rhum was the first sporting stage of the project Sailing into the Future. Together. In 2023, Bona and the Class40 IBSA participated in six regattas, including the Rolex Fastnet Race and the Transat Jacques Vabre. With two victories and three podiums, the record for the highest number of miles covered in 24 hours and over 15,000 miles sailed, Bona won first place overall in the Class40 International Championship. In 2024, between April and July, he will face two of the toughest transatlantic races on the international scene: the Transat CIC from Lorient (France) to New York and the Quebec Saint-Malo (from Canada to France). |
|
THE SKIPPER: Alberto Bona is from Turin, and has a degree in philosophy. As a university student, he won the Panerai trophy aboard Stormvogel, fast ULDB and historic boat with which he crossed the Atlantic Ocean for the first time, winning the ARC with a New Zealand crew. In 2012 he took part in the Minitransat, finishing 5th, one of the best Italian results ever in this category. In 2015, he switched to the prototype category Mini 6.50 with Promostudi La Spezia: he won the Italian championship and finished second in the ocean crossing Les Sables-Azores. In 2017 he discovered the Class40: on Giovanni Soldini’s former Telecom Italia, he participated in the Transat Jacques Vabre, where he was forced to withdraw when he was in sixth place. In 2019 he was aboard the Maserati Multi 70 trimaran, one of the world’s fastest boats, where he practiced on the foils before moving on to the Figaro Beneteau 3, aboard which he participated in the Solitaire; the only Italian registered, in 2020 he finished 7th among the rookies in the first year and 16th overall. In 2021 he won the Italian offshore team title and the Europeans in mixed doubles aboard the Figaro 3. In 2022 he started the new project in partnership with IBSA: after an eighth place in the Route du Rhum 2022, in 2023 Alberto won the Class40 International Championship, closing a season with three podiums and over 15,000 miles covered. |
|
THE BOAT: Designed by French naval architect Sam Manuard and built by the JPS Production shipyard, Alberto Bona’s boat is a Class40 Mach 5 model. Its main characteristics are: scow bow – rounded and with a wider and flatter shape than standard bows – designed to stay high above the water and avoid being submerged; all-round hull, particularly performing in conditions of strong tailwinds; and a large, shielded cockpit, to face extreme conditions of navigation in as comfortable and safe as possible positions. |
|
IBSA: IBSA (Institut Biochimique SA) is a Swiss multinational pharmaceutical Company, founded in 1945 in Lugano. Today, its products are present in over 90 countries on 5 continents, through the Company’s 20 subsidiaries located in Europe, China, and the United States. The company has a consolidated turnover of 986 million CHF, and employs over 2,300 people between headquarters, subsidiaries and production sites. IBSA holds 90 families of approved patents, plus others under development, as well as a vast portfolio of products, covering 10 therapeutic areas: reproductive medicine, endocrinology, pain and inflammation, osteoarticular, aesthetic medicine, dermatology, uro-gynaecology, cardiometabolic, respiratory, consumer health. It is also one of the largest operators worldwide in the area of reproductive medicine, and one of the world’s leaders in hyaluronic acid-based products. IBSA has based its philosophy on four pillars: Person, Innovation, Quality and Responsibility. |
