Yesterday, the Chief of Staff of the Navy, team admiral Valter Girardelli met the sub-cap Andrea Pendibene, a Navy athlete who represented the Italian tricolor in the last "Transat" World Championship, at Palazzo Marina, who returned to Italy after concluding with success in the solo transoceanic regatta.
A competition with a high technical content reserved exclusively for the best 80 world-famous sailors who, from the town of La Rochelle in France, passing through the Canary Islands, challenged each other in a very difficult 27-day endurance race, up to Le Marin on the 'Island of Martinique in the American continent. On board of Pegasus 883, navy of the 6,50 class Navy, the naval engineer and researcher of "new technologies and materials" Andrea Pendibene, has reported the Italian flag and the flag of the Armed Forces beyond the Atlantic Ocean after the last undertaking conducted in the distant 1972 from the captain of vessel Franco Faggioni aboard the Sagittarius.
A battle on the race course reserved for extraordinary athletes who know how to face the ocean and its adversities, making exclusive use of themselves and the full reliability of the means they have, prepared to the smallest details by a team of about 80 military.
The result achieved by Andrea Pendibene, first among the Italians for the "serious" class to arrive at Le Marin after having traveled over 4000 nautical miles, is a prestigious achievement to be proud of, as it contains years of work, sacrifices, research and testing of new assets and materials to be used on Pegasus 883, to bring the Navy to a world-class success.
"The transatlantic Transat regatta is a very difficult competition - explains Pendibene - for various aspects of a technical nature, but it is precisely here that the quality of true sailors comes out. The boats are of the 'series' type, i.e. they maintain certain standard requirements for which the only difference in terms of results is represented by the skill and quality of those who drive them. Furthermore - adds the military - sailing alone for 27 days in full Ocean without ever being able to communicate with the outside, relying exclusively on their athletic training, professional and the ability to manage each activity, represent the added value that every true sailor has in his DNA".
The result confirms the quality and rewards the consistency of this athlete, 1981 class, who from the 2011 pursued the dream of a World Championship in great style to reaffirm at the world level the sailing traditions of the Navy. After the wins at the 2013 and 2014 Championships, and the excellent placement at the Transat 2017, Pendibene now plans new horizons on which to continue the journey of Pegasus 883 in the international circuit, projected towards a world podium that can finally become reality.
The Navy also offers young people the opportunity to become professional military athletes, a standard bearer not only of "Made in Italy" but of the Armed Forces internationally. A life choice that means working in a highly specialized environment where every person is an essential element of a perfect gear, traveling, reaching distant destinations and unique places.
