Milan, April 2, 2025 – A new project by Ambrogio Beccaria, one of Italy’s most talented sailors, and MAPEI, Main Sponsor and a multinational leader in chemical products for construction, was recently presented in Milan at the MAPEI Showroom, marking the beginning of a new sailing adventure: Allagrande MAPEI Racing.
This project is a European-scale one that combines Italian imagination and creativity with the solidity and experience of the French nautical tradition. Based in Lorient, Brittany (in western France) and with strong roots in Milan (where it was born), the project makes its international soul a point of strength and innovation.
After his successes in the Mini 6.50 class and Class40, Beccaria launches his next season in the IMOCA 60 class. It is an ambitious step that is made possible thanks to the trust of a partner such as MAPEI, which is committed to a large-scale project with a common goal: To compete at the highest levels in the Vendée Globe 2028, the solo round-the-world race.
In addition to Beccaria, the launch event was attended by Veronica Squinzi, CEO of MAPEI, and Simona Giorgetta, board member of MAPEI. "Having the opportunity," Beccaria said, "to continue a growth path started some time ago is a great privilege for me. Competing in this class is truly the best. I couldn't wish for anything better. I never even had the courage to dream this big... and now that I'm here, I know there will be tough challenges to face, but I'm motivated to learn from the ocean and, if possible, to win a few races."
Continued Beccaria, "Sponsors have a unique value in this sport; their energy involves the whole team, and for us it’s a great fortune to have MAPEI as a partner. They know sport well, thanks to their experience with cycling and football, and they know that in difficult moments it's essential to be self-critical and improve. We've known each other for three years and our relationship is now solid. MAPEI is a reliable and also very affectionate sponsor."
"We are proud to support this new, innovative and courageous project by Ambrogio Beccaria," Squinzi said. "MAPEI immediately believed in Ambrogio, recognizing in him those sporting values that have always been part of the company's DNA: Passion, tenacity, grit in facing new challenges – a tough sporting and technological adventure which, we are sure, will also take our brand far. MAPEI is a multinational company present in 57 countries around the world; internationalization is one of the pillars of our strategy. Supporting a project whose goal is to sail around the world, with the ocean as a stage and involving international teams, is a natural choice for us."
"I have followed Ambrogio since his first Mini-Transat," Giorgetta added. "He is a pure talent, with an extraordinary determination. That’s also why in 2022 we came aboard his Class40, which marked an important, entirely Italian chapter in offshore sailing and led him to achieve exceptional results. Today, Ambrogio asks us to believe in him and his team once again and to face a new, even more demanding challenge, towards a broader horizon, aboard an IMOCA [International Monohull Open Class Association], with the aim of reaching the dream of every offshore sailor: the Vendée Globe. And we, with enthusiasm, are ready to face this challenge with him."
For Beccaria and his team, this is the first time that they are sailing in the IMOCA world, which is considered the "queen" of offshore classes. It is a class famous for hosting the fastest monohulls in the world – the only ones that are allowed to participate in the Vendée Globe. Founded in 1991 by major sailors including Isabelle Autissier and Jean-Luc Van Den Heede, the class includes 60-foot (18.3-m) monohulls. Since 2016, IMOCAs have been equipped with foils, which are underwater wings that are capable of lifting boats out of the water and making them "fly" across the oceans, achieving extraordinary performances.
The Allagrande MAPEI Racing team is made up of a group of about 20 people – featured at the presentation in Milan were Tiphaine Renard, Bastian Oger, Carlos Olsson, Laure Lunven, Victor Jost and Bianca Bertolini. These men and women of different nationalities are eager to test themselves at sea as on land (with the most important offshore races around the world) and to communicate, through those extraordinary competitions that are ocean crossings, the positive values of this unique and complex discipline. Leading the team will be 33-year-old Beccaria, the first Italian to win the Mini-Transat in 2019, who then also won the Transat Jacques Vabre in 2023 and the Transat CIC in 2024. His record and talent make him no longer a young promise, but a true champion, worthy of the international stage and ready to challenge the best sailors in the world.
Designed by Antoine Koch, designer and sailor, and the finot-conq studio, which is making its big return to 60-foot (18.3-m) ocean monohulls, “Allagrande Mapei” is a boat that combines performance and reliability. It is the boat with which Thomas Ruyant won the Transat Jacques Vabre in 2023 and with which he participated in the Vendée Globe 2024.
“It’s a revolutionary boat,” said Beccaria, “definitely against the trend: It is the first boat with foils that managed to perform well with rough sea and strong wind. The result is achieved thanks to a hull very different from those of other competitors, with V-shaped sections that manage to reduce the impact with the waves. I chose this boat because it is very seaworthy and also achieves good average speeds over long distances. The boat is equipped with two pairs of foils, and I can't wait to test them both to understand the differences.”
Built by CDK Technologies and launched in March 2023, the boat features several innovations. The bow is designed to emerge from the waves and is less scow-oriented when compared to the latest generation of IMOCAs. The deck has been designed for better water drainage onboard and to be as aerodynamic as possible. The cockpit is closed at the front and sides to allow maximum comfort and protection for the skipper but has an opening at the rear to better observe the sky and the surrounding environment.
After the press presentation of the “Allagrande Mapei” in July in Lorient, Brittany, where Beccaria has his headquarters, he will then make his debut as a skipper in the IMOCA class by participating in two major competitions: The Ocean Race Europe (August 10, 2025) and the historic transatlantic Transat Café de L’Or (October 26, 2025).
Launched in 2021, The Ocean Race Europe (TORE) is a tour of Europe under the banner of “Connecting Europe,” with a race stretching from the Baltic Sea, through the North Sea and the English Channel to the Atlantic Ocean, then ending in the Mediterranean, in Boka Bay, Montenegro. The race will engage the fleet for about a month and a half. TORE is sailed with a crew: Four sailors, one of whom must be female, plus an onboard reporter. TORE, reserved for the IMOCA 60 class, is a race that aims to “reset the relationship between humanity and the ocean,” as race chairman Richard Brisius said.
“It’s exciting to see Ambrogio moving into the IMOCA class and to know his first competition as a skipper will be with The Ocean Race Europe this summer, with an Italian-flagged team racing into Genova,” Brisius said. “Ambrogio is a talented and competitive sailor who believes strongly in using his platform in sailing to contribute towards ocean health. During The Ocean Race Europe, along with all the teams, he will be collecting and sharing important ocean data with scientists around the world who are studying the health of the ocean and the impact of climate change on our seas.”
The Transat Café de L’Or (formerly Transat Jacques Vabre) is the legendary double-handed transatlantic race that departs from Le Havre, Normandy, and finishes in Fort-de-France, Martinique. The last edition of the regatta, held every two years, was already won by Beccaria in Class40 in 2023, and by Thomas Ruyant in the IMOCA class (who also won the 2021 edition). IMOCA 60s will cover 4,350 nautical miles (7 001 km) in a non-stop race toward the trade winds, with a required rounding of the Canary Islands.
For the initial period until December 2025, Allagrande MAPEI Racing announces a technical and human resource collaboration with Thomas Ruyant Racing (TRR), a team whose long ocean experience is the perfect accelerator for Beccaria’s ambitious project.
Based in Lorient, France, TRR was founded in 2018 by Thomas Ruyant and Alexandre Fayeulle, CEO of Advens, which is a leading cybersecurity company. TRR is dedicated to the design, preparation and management of racing boats and offshore racing projects. TRR has already completed three Vendée Globe campaigns. “This collaboration,” Beccaria said, “will last a few months and is an incredible growth opportunity for us. It’s a bit like standing on the shoulders of giants to learn from the best and a way to gradually enter a complex world like that of IMOCA. In December 2025 this technical synergy will end, but a sporting collaboration with joint training sessions will continue.” And Ruyant is going to be Beccaria’s co-skipper for the next two races. “Thomas,” continued Beccaria, “has shown that to perform in the ocean, you first need a special mindset. You must think like a marathon runner, be someone who never gives up, who can find energy within even when everything is going wrong. Thomas is known as the transatlantic specialist… he has won them all! I believe this superpower of his is a mix of technique and mental strength that is incredibly inspiring to me.”
Added Ruyant: "With the whole TR Racing team, we are excited to welcome 'Allagrande Mapei' and Ambrogio Beccaria into our structure, starting from the beginning of July. We are ready to support them both on land, at our new headquarters in Lorient, and at sea, providing all the experience we’ve accumulated over the past few years in the IMOCA circuit. For six months, in a way, we will act as an incubator for Ambrogio's project. And together, we will be at the starting line of the Ocean Race Europe and the Transat Café de L'Or, a race where I hold the IMOCA title, while Ambrogio is the latest winner in Class40. This promises to be a fantastic sports season.”
Allagrande MAPEI Racing is an offshore team, and as such, it has developed a strong awareness of the fragility of the environment that hosts it. This project is born and lives on the ocean and is therefore a daily observer of the issues that affect it.
“Today our sporting project is ambitious, and we feel the responsibility to carry it out in a respectful and conscious way,” said Bianca Bertolini, Project Manager & Sustainability Manager, Team Ambrogio Beccaria. “We know we’ll have an impact, but just as the fastest boats don’t create waves because they fly over the water, we want to commit to leaving an ever less visible trace of our passage, both on land and on the ocean.”
Science, impact and dissemination (disclosure) are the three pillars of the Allagrande MAPEI Racing strategy.
Science
The scientific approach, combined with the attitude of the sailors, is essential to fully understand one’s boat and improve its performance. Likewise, regarding the ocean, the Allagrande MAPEI Racing team wants to use a scientific method to first study and understand it deeply, to then protect it.
In collaboration with The Ocean Race Europe, a machine capable of filtering water and collecting microplastics while sailing is installed onboard. The collected samples will then be provided to international scientific institutions – including the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton (UK), Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon in Geesthacht (Germany) and Politecnico di Milano in Milan (Italy) – that will study their characteristics and distribution.
Offshore racing boats have the advantage of covering many miles in some of the most remote and least accessible places on the planet. The goal is to use this potential to gather fundamental data for mapping microplastics in our seas.
Impact
Running an offshore sailing project has an impact: A 20-person team, production of composite parts, logistics and events are some of the aspects that most affect the environmental footprint of the project. During 2025, the goal is to calculate and quantify CO₂-equivalent emissions that are linked to the project’s operation through Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies to develop a concrete strategy to reduce those emissions in the coming years.
Disclosure
Beccaria, his team and MAPEI strongly believe in the power of sport to inspire people and in the importance of everyone’s role in protecting the oceans. Through outreach activities with schools, associations, foundations and research institutions, as well as via podcasts and television programs, the goal is to raise public awareness of the environmental impact of our daily choices by telling the story of how our seas are changing through the sailing adventures of Beccaria and his team.
The MAPEI Sport Research Center practices and pursues scientific excellence that supports athletes to help them improve their performance through tests and training programs. The facility will continue to support Beccaria with physical preparation, medical-sports assistance and nutrition. Equipped with an advanced human-performance lab for determining physiological qualities, a biomechanical-analysis laboratory and a training department that is dedicated to optimizing individual training, the MAPEI Sport Research Center will make all its multidisciplinary know-how available to the sailor.
In agreement with Beccaria, MAPEI Sport will also continue data collection during ocean crossings to better understand the body's response to this very particular type of activity. Through this scientific research, it will be possible to contribute to the growth of the discipline, in line with the mission of applied scientific research that has led MAPEI Sport to publish over 150 scientific papers and collaborate with universities and research institutes around the world.
🔗Visit the Website at allagranderacing.com.
About MAPEI
Founded 1937 in Milan, MAPEI is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of chemical products for the building industry and has contributed to the construction of some of the most important architectural and infrastructural works worldwide. With 96 subsidiaries operating in 57 countries and 93 manufacturing plants in 36 nations, MAPEI Group employs about 12,500 staff worldwide. The foundations for the success of the company are specialization, internationalization, research & development, and sustainability.
Headquartered in Deerfield Beach (Florida), MAPEI North America consists of the subsidiaries MAPEI Corporation (for the USA), MAPEI Inc. (for Canada) and MAPEI Caribe (for Puerto Rico and other Caribbean islands), whose 28 facilities collectively have a workforce of about 2,000 employees. MAPEI facilities are certified to be in conformance with requirements in the ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 Standards for Management Systems. An environmentally conscious manufacturer that reinvests a percentage of its revenue into R&D, MAPEI offers training for architects, contractors, installers and distributors through the MAPEI Technical Institute. For more about MAPEI, visit www.mapei.com or call 1-800-42-MAPEI (1-800-426-2734).
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