The seven-man crew of the Italian ocean going flying multihull, MaseratiMulti70, led by Giovanni Soldini, has closed the gap significantly on the two leading multihulls in the Transpac Race – Phaedo3 and Mighty Merloe – despite being handicapped by breaking a rudder yesterday.
Since colliding with an unidentified floating object that destroyed their starboard rudder, Soldini’s men have had to rely solely on the trimaran’s central rudder to steer the boat when on port gybe.
Nevertheless, the crew of five Italian and two Spanish sailors have been pushing the boat and themselves to the limit in an effort claw back the ground they lost to their two American flagged rivals.
Although constantly at risk of losing control on port gybe, MaseratiMulti70 has reached speeds up to 30 knots as it approaches the finish of 2,225-mile race across the Pacific from Los Angles to Hawaii.
At 12.00 midday Italian time this morning – July 10 – (00.00 midnight on July 9 in Hawaii) MaseratiMulti70 was sailing north west (300 degrees) at 27.8 knots with 423.5 miles to run to the finish at Diamond Head off Honolulu. Meanwhile, the new race leader on the water, Phaedo3, and second-placed Mighty Merloe were respectively 384.2 and 376.4 miles from the finish.
Based on its current rate of progress, MaseratiMulti70 is expected to cross the finish line around 08.00 Italian time on July 11 (20.00 on July 10 in Hawaii).
Fans of MaseratiMulti70 can follow the boat’s progress on the team’s website here: https://maserati.soldini.it/cartography/
