Romain ATTANASIO PURE - Best Western

For this Vendée Globe 2020, Romain Attanasio won’t truly be alone at sea… since his partner in life, British Sam Davies, will also compete in it. Up to now, during the last editions, one of them stayed ashore while the other sailed the seas. In 2008-2009, as in 2012-2013, it was Sam who set off to conquer the round-the-world race. In 2016, it’s Romain who took the start. For 2020, they consider that their son has grown up enough to try the adventure conjointly.

At first glance, nothing could have suggested that this man originating from mountainous Savoie would become an off-shore sailor. But holidays in Bretagne aboard his great-uncle’s cruiser changed his destiny. A mountaineer at first, he turned into a sailor.

As for many skippers, his first off-shore experience was the Mini-Transat. His first participation in 1999 could well have put him off : caught in a very strong gale in the Gulf of Biscay, he could have sunk. Saved by a cargo’s crew, he landed in Spain without ID or money but with the firm determination to erase this first failure.

He quickly entered the Figaro circuit and became member of the Pôle France of Port-La-Forêt . His sharp weather analysis and his endless good mood have made him a key person of the center. Eclectic, Romain Attanasio is able to adapt to any type of boat, moving at ease from a Figaro monotype to the big oceanic multihulls… It is with the same facility that he took hold of his monohull for the 2016 Vendée Globe, a Lombard plan from 2000, that he brought to fifteenth place. With a machine in line with his ambitions, Roman can hope to be in the top 10 for the 2020 edition.