Ambrogio Beccaria crossed the finish line at 1:07 pm NZST on 16 June, ending the Vendée Arctique after eight days, fourteen hours, five minutes and fifty seconds. The Italian’s comeback from fifth place was so sudden and so decisive that it left rivals scrambling in light winds that bent nerves and broke hearts. He’d dived into freezing Irish waters to clear a fishing net from his keel. He’d fought through a total electrical blackout. And then, just when it mattered, he passed Élodie Bonafous and Sam Goodchild to claim one of the most prestigious victories of his career, all on his first solo outing in the Allagrande Mapei.
The Vendée Arctique itself was without precedent. No IMOCA skipper had raced inside the Arctic Circle before. Beccaria seized that novelty and turned it into opportunity.
He’d arrived in the 60-footer barely twelve months earlier, inheriting it from Thomas Ruyant after a year of handover and training. The Italian brought a reputation earned in Class40: double winner of the Normandy Channel Race in 2022 and 2023, victor in the Transat Jacques Vabre and The Transat CIC. But Class40 wins don’t guarantee IMOCA success, and last season—his first in the bigger boat—had been mixed. He abandoned the Course des Caps, claimed a stage win at Genoa in The Ocean Race Europe, and finished fourth in the Transat Café L’Or. Plenty of promise, but no breakthrough.
This time, he took control early. After rounding Île d’Yeu on the opening evening, Beccaria led the fleet until an electrical fault plunged him into total darkness. Twenty minutes blind on deck at sea. He dropped to fifth as he climbed back towards the Fastnet, and that’s where the ordinary skipper might have settled.
Instead, Beccaria committed to a different course. While Goodchild and Bonafous headed one way around the British Isles, he chose a path down the Irish coast that looked conservative at first but became increasingly aggressive as a light-wind zone opened around the finish. Bonafous served a twelve-hour penalty. Goodchild got tangled in doldrums. The winner threaded through both obstacles, took the lead around 6 pm Monday and held it into darkness as he crossed the line alone.
Beccaria covered 3,190 nautical miles at an average speed of 15.5 knots. His resurrection wasn’t luck. It was patience, stubbornness and the kind of decision-making that separates runners-up from race winners. A new hero of ocean racing, he’ll sail up the channel at Les Sables-d’Olonne this morning to collect what he’d earned.
