BREAKING NEWS – Andrea Mura, farewell Vendée: “No money, I’m selling the boat.”
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You have a dream. You sweat tears and blood to reach it. And you see it shipwrecked when you thought you had made it. Who knows how Andrea Mura will feel now: Le Sarde Srl, a management company created to support the Sardinian sailor’s challenge to the Vendée Globe (the solo round-the-world race, the Everest of sailors), announces the sale of the IMOCA 60, designed and built specifically for this race. Goodbye Vendée, goodbye Jacques Vabre. Mura’s enthusiasm, his putting everything on the plate, his very high technical tare, and sympathy were not enough. He had once told us, “Once I am on the starting line, I have no problem, I can sail. I don’t fear the ocean. I fear the economic difficulties and the sacrifices to be made to participate in ocean races.”
We had heard from him in July, Andrea: the Sardinian skipper (winner of Ostar, Twostar, Route du Rhum and Quebec-Saint Malo, our 2014 Sailor of the Year) had “accused” the Sardinian region of abandoning him and told us that the Vendée Globe at risk.”
A BUDGET PROBLEM
And indeed, Le Sarde’s statement reads, “It was a difficult decision resulting from unsuccessful attempts to raise the remaining portion of the funds needed to support the 4-year sports program. Despite the fact that Le Sarde had in fact found the necessary funds to build the boat, it was then not possible to identify a main sponsor in time for the set up and preparation for the 2015 Transat Jacques Vabre (starting at the end of October), a race valid for qualifying for the 2016 Vendée Globe.”
A JEWEL OF ITALIAN TECHNOLOGY
“An even more difficult decision,” the statement continues, “considering that this boat, a new IMOCA 60, is truly a jewel of Italian technology, built with innovative technologies, and that the Vendée Globe is an extraordinary vehicle of communication, unparalleled in the panorama of solo offshore racing. We are confident that the Italian IMOCA 60 will run the upcoming regattas at the highest level and we wish the best to the new team. Le Sarde Srl would like to thank the team of professionals who worked tirelessly and with incredible skills to prepare the boat, the Persico Marine shipyard that built yet another nautical jewel, the Verdier/VPLP designers, the Andrea Mura sailmaker who developed the sails for the boat, the Shore Team, the technical partners who had nonetheless believed in the success of the challenge, the press that always gave proper visibility to the various stages of the project (with a special mention for La Gazzetta dello Sport, MAIN Media Partner), and last but not least skipper Andrea Mura, who obviously does not give up and declares: “There is bitterness about this stop, but my nature always leads me to seek new challenges. Andrea Mura does not end with the Vendée project, I already have new competitive goals to reach and records to break.“.
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