There are two Italians in the “A Series” of sailing

Giovanni Soldini aside (but 1999, the year of his victory at Around Alone, is now prehistory), Italians have always been excluded from “sailing that counts.” We are not talking about attendance at the big ocean and around-the-world regattas: nowadays, the sense of adventure that accompanies events such as the Vendée Globe (the nonstop solo round-the-world race) or the Transat Jacques Vabre (the queen of transoceanic races, from France to Brazil) is not enough. Today you have to be faster than others.

MURA AND PEDOTE, THE TWO SAILORS IN THE ELITE
The “sailing that matters” has been reduced to a small group of oceanic sailors who can win these regattas. And after much effort, two Italians have entered this elite group, Andrea Mura and Giancarlo Pedote: the former had to work up a sweat to find the funds to participate, competitively (not Alessandro Di Benedetto style, mind you), in the Vendée Globe, with a new IMOCA 60. The latter won all the Mini races in France before earning the call of guru Erwan Le Roux on the Multi50 trimarans. Pedote will try to win the Jacques Vabre in October (he is already doing very well, we tell you on p. 105); Mura (whose eventual participation in the Vendée under the aegis of the YC Costa Smeralda seems to have faded after his appointment as an honorary member of the YC Porto Rotondo) will challenge the big boys on equal terms in 2016. At last, two Azzurri in the A-series of sailing, with important goals!