Four years after his eighth place the 48 year old skipper of Prysmian has had a much tougher race mentally and physically than his eighth place four years ago when he finished just 19 hours after the first skipper to finish Charlie Dalin after 80 days of racing. But every Vendée Globe is subject to different challenges and very different weather patterns. The 2020-21 edition saw a re-start in the Pacific following a long period of calm. This time Pedote found himself in the second half of the fleet from early on, snared in light winds and from the Southern Ocean onwards fighting to keep control of his IMOCA, compromised by steering problems. It is a testament to his drive, passion and tenacity that he managed to hold out to record his second finish.
All the same the philosophy graduate from Florence who first made his mark in the Mini650 class, taking second in the 2015 MiniTransat is deeply satisfied to have crossed the finish line to have learned a lot, both about his boat and about himself.
"You can't know in advance what weather systems you're going to encounter and even less how it's all going to happen. You have to approach things being vigilant and very attentive." is how the pragmatic Giancarlo Pedote summed up his state of mind at the start of his second Vendée Globe.
But he found himself on the back foot early on in the race, attempting a passage east and south. Although he actually took the lead in the ranking for a while, like for others around him – many of whom finished in the same pack – the losses thereafter were quite heavy. And a lengthy repair on his FR0 cost him time, too.
“I’ve had better times. All the models in recent days were struggling and that didn’t work to my advantage. It’s a bit difficult to manage things like this,” the sailor explained at the time.
Giancarlo Pedote crossed the equator in 27th position, and spent the rest of his race trying to push hard. At the Cape of Good Hope, he had already gained back a few places, but the Indian was quite savage and unrelenting.
"It's a vicious cycle, as if I were in a giant washing machine in permanent spin mode!" says the Italian sailor, despite his northern route to escape the worst. He ends up joining Jean Le Cam, Alan Roura and Isabelle Joschke, with whom races almost to the end. But since December 30 he was compromised after a serious breakdown to his port rudder forces the Italian to spend long days trying to hold the system together.
But he battles on and the skipper of Prysmian does well to look after himself and his boat, slowing down before Cape Horn to avoid a storm. But even the symbolic rock, crossed in 18th position, does not console Giancarlo Pedote, who is having a hard time, not least as the weather never seems to be falling in his favour :"It was neither a moment of relaxation nor pleasure, unlike those who had ideal conditions.”
But then the weather does give him scope to catch up with the pack ahead of him: first in the South of Brazil, then off the Azores. But his tired boat prevents him from really being competitive, and frustration is felt by this hard bitten competitor, who lives life to the full on the water, underwater, skiing or even in boxing, which he practiced for a long time at a high level before swapping his gloves for his foul weather gear.
22nd is nothing like the result Pedote sought when he set off but under the circumstances he has every right to feel satisfied to have brought himself and his boat to the finish line and to have fully experienced the highs and lows of the Vendée Globe, finishing stronger and wiser for the experience and no doubt better equipped for the next challenge he chooses to take on.
