The Franco-Italian skipper Alessandro Di Benedetto announced this morning that he will be lining up at the start of the next Vendée Globe on 10th November 2012. At 0915 hrs this morning (Wednesday 19th October), he launched his monohull bearing the name Team Plastique in the harbour in Les Sables d'Olonne, a boat that is in fact none other than Arnaud Boissières’s former Akena. Alessandro is moving up from the 6.50 Mini which he sailed alone non stop around the world to the IMOCA Class.
Thomas Coville, Sébastien Josse and Arnaud Boissières have already sailed this 8 tonne boat in the Everest of the Seas. It is now down to Alessandro to sail her across the start line for the fourth time. Alessandro Di Benedetto: "I’ve already sailed the Vendée Globe course aboard a 6.50 m long boat, and am now going to do it again aboard a 6m wide boat. We’ve got a lot of work to do before the end of the year and before we get out there sailing: the electronics, the engine, the rigging and we need to make some new sails."
His new sponsor, Team Plastique, is a company specialising in thermoforming, based in Châteaubriant in Loire-Atlantique. The head of the company Didier Elin admits that he was completely won over when he met Alessandro: "I followed his adventure in the papers and he really amazed me when I met him. I decided to take part in the next Vendée Globe, as the project brings together the 70 employees in our firm and I’m convinced that this is a good way for us to find new clients.”
