Maserati Multi 70 and Giovanni Soldini are ready to participate in the 49th edition of the Rolex Fastnet Race, organized by the Royal Ocean Racing Club. The historical 695-mile regatta will start from Cowes (UK) on Sunday August 8th, at 11.00 UTC (13.00 Italian time).
After a spring spent winning records for Maserati Multi 70 (Plymouth – La Rochelle, 12 hours, 15 minutes, 21 seconds; Cowes – Dinard, 4 hours, 30 minutes, 45 seconds; Fastnet original course: 23 hours, 51 minutes, 16 seconds), the Italian Team is back in the English Channel ready for the new challenge.
Founded in 1925, the Rolex Fastnet Race is held every two years and it’s one of the world’s most famous offshore races. The course includes both inshore and offshore passages, in an area where the variables are many, among intense winds and variable currents. The course tests both inshore and offshore skills, in an area where the variables are many, with strong winds and changeable currents. The fleet will start from Cowes, on Isle of Wight in southern England and will head west. Once the participants leave the Solent through the Needles Channel they will pass Land’s End and cross the Celtic Sea until Fastnet, the rock off Ireland after which the race is named. Once they round the rock, the competitors will head back towards the finish line, off Cherbourg, on the northern coast of France.
For this edition of the regatta there are 453 entrants, divided in 13 classes: the number of participants almost doubled after the previous edition, confirming the Rolex Fastnet Race’s position as the world’s largest offshore regatta. Maserati Multi 70 will compete against 15 multihulls, including Jason Carroll’s America MOD 70 Argo, already challenged in many races in the past years (RORC Caribbean 600, CA 500 e Transpacific Yacht Race). Among the multihulls, there will also be three French Ultim 32/23s (105’ maxi trimarans): Yves Le Blevec’s Actual, Thomas Coville’s Sodebo Ultim 3 and Cyril Dardashti’s Maxi Edmond De Rothschild, skippered by Franck Cammas and Charles Caudrelie, who set the multihull record for the race in 2019 (1 day, 4 hours, 2 minutes and 26 seconds). Another competitor will be Anotoine Rabaste’s 80’ maxi trimaran Ultim’emotion 2, already challenged by the Italian Team in the 2020 RORC Caribbean 600. The only other Italian entrant alongside Maserati Multi 70 will be Prysmian Group, Giancarlo Pedote’s IMOCA 60.
