Giovanni Soldini

Giovanni Soldini was born in Milan on 16 May 1966. Ocean navigator and pioneer in the development of innovative technologies and trim for racing yachts, he has over thirty years of solo and crewed ocean races behind him, including two solo round-the-world races (one second and one first place), six Québec-Saint Malo (one won in the monohull class), six Ostar (two wins in the 50′ and 40′ classes), three Transat Jacques Vabre (one win in the 40′ class) and more than 40 transoceanic races.

In 1994/95 at the B.O.C. Challenge, the solo round-the-world race in stages, Soldini crossed the finish line in second place with the 50-footer Kodak. In 1998-99 he won the Around Alone, his second solo round-the-world race in stages, with Fila, the first 60-footer with canting keel and wing mast built in Italy. During the third leg he rescued and saved the French sailor Isabelle Autissier, who had capsized in the South Pacific at 60° south, between New Zealand and Cape Horn.

Between 2001 and 2005, Soldini was the first Italian to compete in the 60-foot trimaran class ORMA with the multihull first named Fila, then Tim. From 2007 to 2009, on board Telecom, he raced in the new Class 40, taking first place in all the most important regattas he took part in, as well as winning the class world championship in 2009.

On board the monohull VOR 70 Maserati, Soldini conquered the new record on the Golden Route from New York to San Francisco in 2013 (13,225 miles in 47 days, 42 minutes and 29 seconds) and won important regattas such as the Cape2Rio in 2014, setting a new record that is still unbeaten today.

Since 2016, on board Maserati Multi70, the first flying ocean trimaran, he has set the Hong Kong-London route record in 2018 (15,083 actual miles in 36 days, 2 hours, 37 minutes and 12 seconds), the English Channel record in 2021 and the record on the original Fastnet route, and he has won numerous victories in the RORC Transatlantic Race, RORC Caribbean 600 and Rolex Middle Sea Race.

Soldini has always been passionate about spreading the culture of the sea and is committed to its preservation. In 2022 he transformed Maserati Multi70 into the first full-electric racing boat and collected data on the ocean that is useful to the scientific community for the UNESCO Ocean Decade.

In 2000, by decision of French President Jacques Chirac, he received the Légion d’honneur for the rescue of Isabelle Autissier. In 2004, he was appointed Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic by Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi. In 2008, he was awarded the Medaglia d’Oro al Merito di Marina for his achievements in sailing sport by the President of the Republic Giorgio Napolitano.

Photo © Alberto Origone