Andrea takes part in the most legendary of the transatlantic solo races, the Route du Rhum, 3542 miles from Saint-Malo in Brittany, to Guadeloupe in the Caribbean.
Supporting him are the Innovation Partner Enel Green Power, the Official Partners Akran Intellectual Property, Credimi and the Technical Partners Slam, Ubi Maior Italia, Garmin Marine, Solbian, and Porto Mirabello.
In the 2018 edition, the Route du Rhum blows out forty candles: the first edition was held in 1978. An edition that also marks an absolute participation record in a transatlantic regatta: the skippers registered on the official website are 123.
Andrea sails on the Class40 ITA55 Magalé.
Magalé is a boat with a very respectable history: it was designed by Guillaume Verdier for Giovanni Soldini and for this two-year period, with Andrea, it competes under the name of Enel Green Power. The Class40 has undergone a complete refit that made it much more competitive.
For qualifying, the race committee asked skippers to sail alone for 1,200 miles, of which at least 120 with a headwind of at least 5 Beaufort. Andrea, sailing from Cadiz to Lorient, in Brittany, met and exceeded this requirement. Then he settled in La Base, Lorient, for other construction work and hard training.
"I am very tense, the context favours a bit of tension... it is the context of major, massive events. But it is also a positive tension because it helps me stay focused on what I have to do. In addition, the first few days forecast a weather situation that will not be pleasant... I have no problem at all to admit that I feel a quite anxious right now..."
The Route du Rhum, which started on November 4th in the midst of North Atlantic winter, is accompanied by North American depressions, strong winds, frozen water, ship traffic in the English Channel. Five hard days and then two choices: the north or south route of the Azores anticyclone. After this phase, the wind conditions and sea state improve thanks to the winds that brought Columbus to America, the trade winds. This means warmer temperatures and a tailwind towards the Caribbean.
"The pitfalls of a regatta such as the Route du Rhum are many. On the other hand, it is a solo regatta, which means that you have to sail fast to get ahead of your opponents, make a strategy based on the weather by studying the evolutions several times a day, and in the meantime, you have to eat, sleep, shoot photos and videos, repair everything that breaks... in short, 24 hours in a day is definitely not enough! "
