Defi Atlantique: Beccaria and Bona go for it but Lipinski is a cannibal

We are in the final stages of the second leg of this compelling Defi Atlantique, the west-to-east Atlantic crossing for crewed Class 40s. The Horta-La Rochelle stage proved to be as tough as ever for Ambrogio Beccaria and Alberto Bona, who set out with the goal of catching up with the winner of the first stage, Ian Lipinski on Credit Mutuel, 2 and 5 hours respectively.

Defi Atlantique – Lipinski has victory in his grasp

Lipinski did not falter, and he went on to shut down every attempt by our Coppi and Bartali to make a comeback, extinguishing their comeback ambitions day after day. With a boat only slightly slower than those of the Italians, the Frenchman always managed to stay in the wake of ours, even placing a few overtakes and still never lagging more than 5-6 miles behind.

In these hours, the fleet is facing the final sprint to La Rochelle, with Beccaria attempting an extreme separation to the north to try to sweep the course from Lipinski, even at the cost of losing positions on the stage standings, but trying to do something different than Credit Mutuel. Lipinski in fact applied a tight marking on ours, leaving few escape routes.

Beccaria and Bona toward the podium

The Italians’ regatta, even if the overall victory does not come, is still top-notch, with Allagrande Pirelli and IBSA consistently being in the top 5, and even for the final standings, there should be no problem getting on the podium. When there are just over 50 miles to go, second and third place, as in the first leg, seem firmly within reach for Beccaria and Bona. And it remains to be seen whether Allagrande’s move to sweep northward will bring anything in terms of a stage result and catching up with Lipinski.

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The level of difficulty of Class 40 racing, as seen at the Route du Rhum, and as we have had the opportunity to verify also in this Defi Atlantique where some top skippers are missing, is always very high and is nowhere near what Beccaria and Bona encountered on the Mini 650s. To win takes time in short, and you need to go through some complex regattas as this Defi was, with ours starting as super favorites but finding in their path an Ian Lipinski determined to prove that he is still one of the best in the class.

TRACKING

Mauro Giuffrè