Stroke survivor completes transatlantic crossing

Any transatlantic crossing is an achievement, no matter the vessel or the crew. For Nordhavn 40 owner Philippe Guglielmetti, however, his June/July 2022 crossing contained an impressive level of personal accomplishment. In 2015 Guglielmetti suffered a a pontine hemorrhagic stroke that left him in a wheelchair.

Guglielmetti departed Miami aboard his Nordhavn 40, Embracing Life on May, 28 and arrived in Tarragona, Spain on July 12. The passage was completed in three legs: Miami to Bermuda, Bermuda to the Azores and Azores to Tarragona. Guglielmetti had other crew with him on the passage, the mix changing with each leg, but including Adelaide Bernard a Belgian researcher in Neuroscience (PhD UC Berkeley) and Guglielmetti’s daughter Maxime, a French American living in Montreal and a student in biology at McGill university.

Guglielmetti was born in France and grew up an avid outdoorsman. He was also an engineer who founded the successful e-commerce company Integra, an international business that counted high-end corporations such as EuropCar among its clients and had a staff of more than 1,100 employees. Guglielmetti sold Integra to Verizon and went on to establish other tech companies, and for a time dabbled in boat building as the CEO of French yacht brand Arcoa.

Guglielmetti’s accomplishment was heightened by some adversity on the voyage. A week after departing Bermuda the boat’s paravanes were lost, forcing Embracing Life to conduct the remaining 23 days of the voyage without stabilization. This exposed Guglielmetti to the full effects of ocean waves, a challenge for a person with his disability. You can read more about Guglielmetti and his team at his crossing website.

By Tim Queeney