“It was an extremely challenging OSTAR, I’m happy to be here healthy and safe,” these are the first words of Sardinian sailor Andrea Mura, first at the solitary transatlantic finish, sailed by Plymouth on May 29th. Travel time: 17 days, 4 hours, 6 minutes, 19 seconds.

Almost a race elimination, as four powerful blizzards in succession have decimated the fleet, forcing two thirds of competitors to retire.

In particular, the last one, the one that all called The Perfect Storm, with winds over 60 knots and waves of 15 meters, which forced the abandonment of its own boat the other Italian, the young promise Michele Zambelli, taken to safety from the Canadian Coast Guard with a rescue in action movies style.

He did not get the record set by Giovanni Soldini in 1996. It was one of Mura’s undeclared targets, which had chosen a north route between Iceland and Greenland at the start of the race to circumvent the first depression but also to look for those winds that allowed to gain a lot of advantage.

The record, however, would be just the icing on the cake of a legendary victory: no one had previously won 3 editions in a row, and Mura put in his palmares Twostar 2012 (with records), Ostar 2013 and Now the Ostar 2017. It was, however, a “unique” edition for the terrible weather conditions, for the number of competitors that abandones the race, for the latitude reached by the same Mura (56th North) never attempted by any skipper in this race.

At moments immediately after the 2013 victory he swore that he would never do it again: now Andrea no longer speaks for the argument, but certainly Vento di Sardegna has gotten everything he could from this difficult racing and taking part again would not really direction.

“I want to thank all those who have followed me through newspapers, TV and web, and also through social, know that hundreds of thousands have made me feel incredible affection and closeness – emphasizes Mura – even in the middle of the ocean I never really felt alone. I would like to thank them one by one ”

“I also thank our technical sponsors, real partners, thanks to them this boat has come here virtually without damage – adds Mura – We recall that Vento di Sardegna is a project born in 1997, born of the Felci Italian genius. It’s an old boat that we’ve improved over the years, ideal for challenging regattas like the Ostar. “

Several managers of American engineering partners of Andrea Mura have arrived on arrival to greet the skipper, along with many fans, including many Italians.

Noteworthy are the media outcomes: from April 21st, departure day from Cagliari, Mura’s adventure has produced more than 400 releases between TV, newspapers, radio and web for a counter value (advertisement equivalency index) of about 3 million euros . Since 2010, the year of the first ocean victory at Route du Rhum, to date (5 wins on 6 solo races), Mura has generated a total value of over 33 million euros.
Only Brigata Sassari’s (Dimonios) video played at the Cagliari starting ceremony has got 500,000 views in a few hours: 4 million views between Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are the “social score” of Mura at this OSTAR.

Vento di Sardegna in the United States will now have other official commitments: in addition to the OSTAR prize of June 21, there will be an important event in New York, which will soon reveal the details.

With OSTAR 2017, Andrea Mura’s palmares in the ocean races become increasingly rich:
• 2010, Route du Rhum, a famous solo transatlantic regatta that takes place every four years, 3.543 miles through the cold waters of the North Atlantic to the Caribbean. With this victory, Andrea is the first Italian to enter the legend.
• 2012, win and record both in Twostar (13 gg 14 h), and in Quebec – S. Malò. (11 days, 12 hrs)
• 2013, win at the Ostar, 2,850 miles from England to the United States, the toughest of the races alone because of the polar, counter-current and counter-current temperatures.
• Andrea won the “Velista dell’Anno” award in 2011 and 2014.
• In November 2014, he finished second (first of the monohulls) the Route du Rum 2014 – Destination Guadeloupe in “Rhum Class”.