IBSA and Her Skipper Alberto Bona Win the 2023 Class40 Championship
From launch to first place in just 18 months: the project of Bona & IBSA enters the Class40 “hall of fame”
LUGANO, Switzerland–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Alberto Bona and IBSA enter the Class40 “hall of fame” – the category of ocean-going skippers and boats that participate in the most important transoceanic regattas – topping with a brilliant first place the ranking which takes into account the most demanding races of the season.
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The Class40 title is much coveted and fought for: over the years, the trophy has been won by some of the leading ocean sailors, and is a milestone in the successful sailors’ prize record. In the 2023 season, the victory of Bona and the Class40 IBSA is destined to be memorable, also because it includes the still unbeaten 24-hour speed record, which he achieved last June 29, during the regatta Les Sable-Horta-Les Sable: 430.47 miles covered in a single day. These significant results were obtained just 16 months after the start of the project that brought IBSA into the world of sailing.
“We achieved our first goal of the season,” commented Alberto, “and I am excited, because, with perseverance and determination, we accomplished a feat that only two years ago was only an ambition, a dream; and I attained this result in my debut year as skipper in the Class40. This victory speaks of sporting performance, planning ability, joint team work, and trust on the part of our sponsor, IBSA. This victory has many meanings, related to the values that we carry forward together with IBSA: courage, commitment, perseverance and the will to create a winning enterprise.”
Great satisfaction for IBSA, the sponsor of the project, which celebrates the most coveted step on the podium: “As a partner of this project,” remarked Giorgio Pisani, Vice President IBSA Group and Project Leader of Sailing into the Future. Together, “we are very happy with this result, which places the Class40 IBSA at the top of the rankings for the entire season. We entered the world of sailing less than 2 years ago, we celebrated four important podiums in the course of 2023, and today we achieved a victory that rewards long-term planning and work, all in line with the way of thinking and working of a corporation like IBSA. Alberto has grown a lot in these two years: he achieved excellent results, and led us to share his passion for sailing, which has also been expressed in other important projects, such as those dedicated to inclusive sailing.”
Thanks to two prestigious victories (the RORC Caribbean 600 and the Les Sables-Horta-Les Sables), a third place in the two transatlantic races (the Défi Atlantique and the Transat Jacques Vabre, which ended at the end of November), and the sixth place in the Normandy Channel Race, Alberto and the Class40 IBSA lead the ranking; after Giovanni Soldini, Bona is the second sailor of Italian nationality to reach the first place, within an international project that unites Switzerland, France and Italy.
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THE PROJECT: Sailing into the Future. Together started in January 2022; the partnership between IBSA and Alberto Bona was born on common bases and values, and aims to use sailing as a vehicle for corporate communication, towards the market and the nautical world. Ingenuity, courage, innovation, responsibility are elements that unite IBSA and Alberto, and the oceanic challenge, in addition to the sporting race, also metaphorically represents the company’s history, philosophy and vision, which are always oriented towards the future and are part of a path that brings IBSA increasingly closer to the topics of environmental and social sustainability, inclusion and integration. The Route du Rhum was the first stage of the three-year programme Sailing into the Future. Together, which the Swiss pharmaceutical company started with Bona and which continues in 2023 with a busy calendar of regattas, including the Rolex Fastnet Race and the Transat Jaques Vabre. |
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THE BOAT: The boat with is a latest generation Class40, with a scow bow. Designed by French naval architect Sam Manuard and built by the JPS Production shipyard, the boat is a Mach 5 model, the latest evolution of Manuard’s Class40. The characteristics: rounded bow, created with the aim of increasing performance while running; water lines and appendages designed to make the hull an all-round fast even upwind; large and protected cockpit to face navigation in the most comfortable and safe positions possible. The first international regatta in which Alberto Bona participated with the Class40 IBSA was the Route du Rhum 2022. |
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THE SKIPPER: Alberto Bona is from Turin, and has a degree in philosophy. As a university student, he won the Panerai trophy with 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 Vabres, 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 fastest boats in the world, 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, he finished 7th among the rookies in the first year and 16th overall in 2020. 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, with the support of the IBSA Group: with the new Class40 IBSA, he participated in the Route du Rhum 2022, finishing in eighth position. |
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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 18 subsidiaries located in Europe, China, and the United States. The company has a consolidated turnover of 900 million CHF, and employs over 2,200 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. |
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Contacts
Ornella Reccia – ornella.reccia@noesis.net – mob. +39 329 393 1922