Romain ATTANASIO

The browser virus is taken. As a teenager, Romain was passionate about big ocean races from his boarding school room in Compiègne. He begins in drifter at the local club and then, against all odds, manages to join the sports-study section of La Baule, by laser. In one school year, he discovered a real talent for sailing.

He managed to set up a Mini 6.50 project, but in 1999 a huge storm hit the Bay of Biscay and his first major ocean race experience - the Mini Transat - was frightening: the boat was turned over, saved in extremis by a cargo ship, then hoisted and repatriated to Spain and France.

Without clothes, without paper and with an improbable look, "I arrive at Orly in flip-flops and tracksuits', with a garbage bag in my hand... Today, I would be arrested by the police with such a look!"

Failed? Not exactly, because his partner at the time found the start experience exciting and gave him the means to continue in Figaro Bénéteau. Romain joins the Pôle Finistère of Port-La-Forêt, the royal road for a Figarist. He is becoming one of its pillars, with excellent results in line with La Solitaire du Figaro and the Transat AG2R. He will follow ten seasons, while also sailing for the best in multihulls, at the time of the Orma trimarans: with Michel Desjoyeaux first on Géant, then with Franck Cammas on Groupama. A skilled strategist, he is often hired as a navigator.

After completing his first round the world voyage in the Vendée Globe 2016-17 in 110 days, Romain is already preparing for the 2020-21 edition.

For this new challenge, he has been sailing since 2018 on Fabrice AMEDEO's former boat (Gitana80 designed by Loick Peyron) called PURE with which he finished 13th in the Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe in 2018

Romain Attanasio is preparing today for the Transat Jacques Vabre 2019 and for the Vendée Globe 2020.