Milan, Italy – MAPEI, a multinational leader in chemical products for construction, together with world champion Italian yacht racer Ambrogio Beccaria, announced the launch of a new sailing project, of which MAPEI is the Main Sponsor. The project, called Allagrande MAPEI Racing, was presented today in Milan at the MAPEI Showroom, marking the beginning of a new sailing adventure.
Allagrande MAPEI Racing is a European-scale project combining Italian imagination and creativity with the know-how and experience of the French nautical tradition. Based in Lorient, Brittany, and with strong roots in Milan, where it was conceived, the project is built on an international foundation of strength and innovation.
Fresh from his successes in the Mini 6.50 class and Class40 single-handed (solo) yacht races, Beccaria is now launching his next season in the IMOCA 60 class – an ambitious step made possible thanks to the support of MAPEI. Together, we are committed to this large-scale project, with the goal of competing at the pinnacle of the sport, in the 2028 Vendée Globe, a solo race around the globe.
Beccaria was in attendance for the kick-off event, as well as MAPEI CEO Veronica Squinzi, and MAPEI board member Simona Giorgetta.
“Having the opportunity to continue a growth path started some time ago is a great privilege for me,” Beccaria said. “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.
“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,” Beccaria said.
“We are proud to support this new, innovative and courageous project by Ambrogio Beccaria,” Veronica 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. Allagrande MAPEI Racing will be 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,” Squinzi said. “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, 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 will mark the first competition in the IMOCA world (acronym for International Monohull Open Class Association), considered the “queen” of offshore classes. It is a class famous for hosting the fastest monohulls in the world, the only ones allowed to participate in the Vendée Globe. Founded in 1991 by major sailors including Isabelle Autissier and Jean-Luc Van Den Heede, it includes 60-foot monohulls. Since 2016, IMOCAs have been equipped with foils, underwater wings capable of lifting boats out of the water, and “flying” across the oceans achieving extraordinary performances.
The Allagrande MAPEI Racing team is made up of a group of about 20 people, including Tiphaine Renard, Bastian Oger, Carlos Olsson, Laure Lunven, Victor Jost and Bianca Bertolini – men and women of different nationalities, eager to test themselves at sea and on land, with the most important offshore races around the world, and to share, 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 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, making its big return to 60-foot ocean monohulls, the Allagrande MAPEI is a vessel 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 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,” Beccaria said.
Built by CDK Technologies and launched in March 2023, the Allagrande MAPEI features several innovations. The bow is designed to emerge from the waves, less scow-oriented compared to the latest generation 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 make his debut as a skipper in this 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, and will engage the fleet for about a month and a half. The regatta 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 departing from Le Havre, Normandy, and finishing 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 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 TRR, a team whose long ocean experience is the perfect accelerator for the Milanese sailor’s ambitious project.
Based in Lorient, France, TRR was founded in 2018 by Thomas Ruyant and Alexandre Fayeulle, CEO of Advens, 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.
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 directly tied to the oceans and is therefore a daily observer of the issues that affect them.
“Today our sporting project is ambitious and we feel the responsibility to carry it out in a respectful and conscious way,” said Bianca Bertolini, MAPEI Project Manager & Sustainability Manager. “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 are the three pillars of the Allagrande MAPEI Racing (AGMR) strategy.
The scientific approach, combined with the attitude of the sailors, is essential to fully understand one’s boat and improve its performance. Likewise, with regard to the ocean, the AGMR team wants to use a scientific method to first study and understand it deeply, in order to then protect it.
In collaboration with The Ocean Race, 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 (Italy) – which 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.
Running an offshore sailing project has an undeniable 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 linked to the project’s operation through LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) studies, in order to develop a concrete strategy to reduce them in the coming years.
Ambrogio 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, promoting scientific excellence that supports athletes to help them improve their performance through tests and training programs, 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 dedicated to optimizing individual training, it 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: allagranderacing.com
About MAPEI
Founded in 1937 in Milan, MAPEI is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of chemical products for construction and has contributed to the construction of the most important architectural and infrastructure projects globally. With 96 subsidiaries in 57 countries and 93 production plants operating in 36 nations, the Group employs over 12,500 people worldwide. In 2023, the MAPEI Group recorded consolidated revenues of €4.2 billion. The foundations of the company’s success: specialization, internationalization, research and 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 1,800 employees. MAPEI facilities have been certified to ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 quality standards. An environmentally conscious manufacturer that reinvests 5% 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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