The meeting between the Navy Chief of Staff, Admiral Valter Girardelli, and the athletes Andrea Pendibene, who will participate in the competition as skipper, and Giovanna Valsecchi, who contributed to the preparation of the boat, took place today at Palazzo Marina and will be engaged as co-skipper.
During the meeting Admiral Girardelli greeted the two sailors, asking some questions about the progress of the technical preparation of the boat and the athletics of our sailors, and how we are preparing for a long solo journey. News of the 2017 edition of the transatlantic race Mini Transat it is the seat of the first stage that moves from the usual Lanzarote to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, to then resume on November XNUMXst, after the stop, through the great Atlantic jump to Le Marin, in Martinique, in the Caribbean.
A competition, the Mini Transat which was born in 1977 by the Englishman Bob Salomon and which still today constitutes the main regatta of the regatta circuit for Class 650 sailboats.
A solo race of over 4.000 nautical miles to be covered on a boat a little over 6 meters long, with the characteristic of a ban on the use of cell phones and satellite phones.
The security of the participants will be guaranteed by radio contact and assistance boats.
Andrea Pendibene, class 81 sailor with an experience of 18.000 nautical miles at sea, will be present at the start, next October 3st, from La Rochelle in France aboard Pogo 883 ITA 84, a boat of the "Pegaso Marina Militare" series, and will have to compete with 15 other athletes from XNUMX countries, seven of which are Italian.
For Pendibene this is the fourth participation in the tough competition, faced in the past for the Navy by sailors of the caliber of the admirals Straulino and Faggioni.
