FR
ENWith eight co-skippers in the fleet, Italy’s Scuderai has the biggest international presence in the 74 boat Transat Café L’Or. fleet They held a press conference today introducing Beccaria who now has his own new IMOCA programme Allagrande Mapei, Olympic 49er FX World and European champion turned The Ocean Race winner Francesca Clapcich who is setting out on her own Vendée Globe campaign in the colours of 11 th Hour. And in the 42 strong Class 40 division Andrea Fornaro, who was 8 th in 2023 and Alessandro Torresani sail Influence 2, a 2023 Musa 40. Newcomers with a brand new Musa 40 Maccaferri Futura are ex Olympic classes and Mini sailors Luca Rosetti and Matteo Serricano. Alberto Riva partners French counterpart Benoit Sineau on the Musa 40 Ekinos and Pietro Luciani sails on the French Musa 40 Les Invincibles with Willaim Mathelin Moreaux. And in total there are six of the Italian designed Musa 40s designed by Gianluca Guelfi and Fabio d’Angelli and built by San Giorgio Marine in Genoa.
Forza Italia
As well as being armed with the latest Musa 40, the updated boat that Beccaria pioneered, Rosetti and Sericano share similar profiles to the 2023 winning skipper. Both are former Olympic classes racers, Luca in the Laser and Matteo in the 470, who have moved from successes in the Mini to Class40. hey have also raced extensively in the J/70, Melges and offshore IRC And, as it to telegraph their potential on their racing debut with Maccaferri Futura, Rossetti from Bologna and Sericano from Genoa won their first race together, the first leg of the Les Sables Horta Les Sables race, narrowly eclipsing Pep Costa and Pablo Santurde on VSF and Fabien Delahaye and Pierre Leboucher on Legallais.
Just two years ago Rossetti, as Beccaria did before him, won the Mini Transat. His co-skipper Sericano grins, “Could we win? Why not? For sure that is our goal. The boat is slightly different with a lot os small things updated which together make a big difference. The boat is lighter and the mast is moved a little back, the shape of the sails is improved and the shape of the rudders is updated. And having won the first race with the boat we are confident we can do well. The boat is fast. We know each other from the Mini, we raced at the same time from 2018. I broke my boat when I hit a container but we have both races the Mini Transat twice. Luca won in 2023 and so he is on a similar path to Ambrogio.”
Francesca Clapcich enthused, “Overall Italian sailors are doing well and we are getting more and more access to this kind of event, we have sponsors who believe that we can have a strong future in ocean and offshore racing. We have a good number of sponsors here and more coming in. That in itself is not easy and I think companies should be given more credit for challenging the economical situation and believing it is the right thing to do for our sport, for the environment it is very important. There is a surge in ocean racing, the America’s Cup is a different beast with a different budget, but overall Italian sailing is on the up and is being more and more noticed. Between the Youth and the Women’s teams winning at the America’s Cup, we have incredible Olympic racers in every class. The country is small but it gets behind sailing with a lot of passion but as well there is a lot of talent.”