Despite difficulties and failures, Prysmian closed in 85 days, 20 hours and 32 minutes: “It is a Sifda with yourself: it makes you discover a force that you did not know you have”
He had gone better four years ago, but Giancarlo Pedote must still be heard proud to have concluded the Vendée Globe in 22nd position, the tour of the world in solitary non-stop. It is the only Italian – for now – to have completed it twice and this already makes him enter our oceanic Hall of Fame. Then, in light of the technical problems endured along the navigation, the 49 -year -old Florentine returned to Les Sables d’Olonne. “I think this is making a sailor precious, more than one number,” he explained to journalists in the first press conference after arrival. Of course, the detachment from the best was enormous: Prysmian took 85 days, 20 hours and 32 minutes when Charles Dalin’s triumphant boat was enough 64 days, 19 hours and 22 minutes. Pedote, in the last edition, had reached incredibly eighth with a time of 80 days, 22 hours and 42 minutes to just under 19 hours from the winner Yannick Bestaven. But that edition was unique in the history of the race, with the best eight enclosed in just 24 hours in the last miles. This was a pyreneic stage of the tour.
“Me and my boat”
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With an old generation boat – built in 2015 and in the third presence in the Vendèe Globe – the Italian sailor could aim for a place in the first 15. The more it would have been a half miracle. Yet he started very well, so much so that on two occasions he even found himself at the top of the fleet in front of the new ‘monsters’ with the stratospheric foils and budgets compared to his. Fatale proved to be the slowdown off the Canaries, avoided by the best who took an unbridgeable advantage in the descent of the Atlantic which – as expected – has increased dramatically between the Indian and the Pacific. It was not enough, Prysmian accused serious problems for the rudder movement system that forced pedest to abandon the regatta mode to devote themselves to emergency repairs. And in early January there was also an engine to the engine which on an imocation 60 is more important than the sails because it provides the energy necessary for all on -board systems. With thirteen hours of very hard work, Giancarlo – also falsely fooled it and told the story on his diary, with a lucid consideration. “This is the gift of the Vendée Globe: it undresses you with everything, puts you in front of yourself, and makes you discover a strength you didn’t know you had. My boat and I, together, will arrive at home. ”
“A turbine of emotions”
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A real undertaking to arrive, even during the final rush when it was still in the running for the 15th position, had to throw the sponge so as not to risk the retreat. “Every time I accelerated, when the boat reached 30 knots of speed, he jumped. And so at a certain point I said I needed nothing, that if I had angry at the end it would have been worse – said Pedote -. If I have a regret, it is that I have not had time to compare myself with other more efficient boats to see what he could really do prysmian. ” After making the French smile with an all -Italian consideration (“The Vendée Globe is a restaurant where you are not the ones to choose the menu: you will be served the dishes of the house, and everything will depend on the mood of Neptune”), pedest does not have Excluded to recur in Les Sables d’Olonne, in four years, perhaps with a competitive boat. “But I need time to understand it: I went back to the sea for three months, I didn’t have five minutes with my family, it would be unresolved to answer today. I am a husband, a father, my decisions do not only concern me, I need to know also how they lived them. So, in the heat of the moment, this would inevitably be an inaccurate response. Then the Vendèe Globe is a turbine of emotions. What will remain of it will understand it at Christmas. ”
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