Class40 2023 Champion, the Italian who beat Beccaria in his own class
Alberto Bona has raced in Class40 since 2017. From 2022 to 2024, he skippered hull #186IBSAa Mach 40.5 designed by Sam Manuard and built by JPS Production in La Trinité-sur-Mer. In 2023, he delivered a crazy season: Class40 champion (1,077 points), victory at the RORC Caribbean 600 fourteen minutes ahead ofAlla Grande – Pirelliby Ambrogio Beccaria, win at the Sables – Horta – Les Sables, and 3rd in the Transat Jacques Vabre. The IBSA project ended in November 2024 after three seasons, 25,000 racing miles, five transatlantic races, two wins and five podiums.
The 2023 season that changed everything
February 2023, RORC Caribbean 600. Bona and Pablo Santurde del Arco finished the 600-mile lap around the Antilles in the lead, ahead of Beccaria — the Italian who had dominated the class for years withAlla Grande – Pirelli. The gap: 14 minutes after two and a half days of racing. That same season, Bona racked up wins and podiums on the Class40 circuit until claiming the championship at year-end. The Transat Jacques Vabre closed the sequence with a 3rd place Le Havre – Fort-de-France (18d 21h over 5,466 nm, again with Santurde del Arco).
2024: the race that broke the streak
CIC Transat 2024, Lorient – New York solo. Bona finished 5th in 12d 4h 35m, but the race was marked by a hull failure that slowed him in the second half. A few months later, IBSA ended the program after three years. Class40 #186 was sold to Sasha Lanièce (Les Déferlantes / Alderan team).
2025: back on hull #158
In 2025, Bona returned to Class40 #158Crédit Mutuel (Ian Lipinski’s former boat) and entered the CIC Med Channel Race doublehanded with Lipinski himself.
Results
- 2022: 8th Route du Rhum – Destination Guadeloupe solo, first season in Class40IBSA (hull #186).
- 2023: 1st RORC Caribbean 600 with Pablo Santurde del Arco, 14 minutes ahead ofAlla Grande – Pirelli by Ambrogio Beccaria.
- 2023: 3rd Défi Atlantique with Pablo Santurde del Arco.
- 2023: 1st Sables – Horta – Les Sables doublehanded.
- 2023: 6th Normandy Channel Race, 8th Rolex Fastnet Race.
- 2023: 3rd Transat Jacques Vabre Le Havre – Fort-de-France with Pablo Santurde del Arco (18d 21h over 5,466 nm).
- 2023: Class40 champion (International Championship, 1,077 points).
- 2024: 5th CIC Transat Lorient – New York solo (12d 4h 35m, slowed by hull damage).
- 2024: 3rd Normandy Channel Race.
