After arriving into Grenada at 20h 54′ 23″ GMT (16.54 local time) yesterday evening, Maserati Multi70 skipper Giovanni Soldini gave us his first thoughts on the RORC Transatlantic Race, wich started from Lanzarote at 12.10 GMT on November 26 and was completed by the Italian team in a time of 7 days 8 hours and 23 seconds.
«It was a fantastic race even if we would have liked to compete up close with Phaedo3 to check the speed of both boats in different situations but on the first night out, we made different route choices without having their position from the AIS (Automatic Identification System): passing Las Palmas on the windward side to the north seemed the less risky choice to us to avoid ending up in the wind shadow of the island. But it turned out we were wrong as it took us into a zone with less wind. Our American friends, who were to the south, took off like a rocket, however. The northerly route, which we had no choice but to follow at that point, also turned out worse than the southerly one».
That said, the RORC Transatlantic Race was a positive experience for Maserati Multi70 overall, proving an excellent test-bench for her ocean flying capabilities as Soldini confirmed: «The Trade Wind conditions that form, arriving here with a high pressure area and a not-too rough sea are ideal for getting a boat like ours to fly: we made an average of 24 knots with peaks of 40 and had one blistering day when we were powering along consistently at over 30 knots. We are very happy with everything we learned about flying, by using an L-foil in the open ocean. We’ve found a way to use it both when there’ s too much wind and wave, and in other more changeable conditions when it is possible to fly. We are very satisfied with the work we did and with all the optimisations we discovered. In fact, we’d be ready to cast off again tomorrow!».
credit@Arthur Daniel
