Giovanni Soldini and his crew of Spanish and Italian sailors aboard MaseratiMulti70 – the first ocean-going flying multihull – are today primed and ready in Los Angeles, California to take on one of yacht racing’s classic open ocean races – the Transpacific Yacht Race to Honolulu, Hawaii.
Soldini’s team is scheduled to start the 2.225-mile race at 13.30 local time (22.30 in Italy). MaseratiMulti70 will line up against four other multihull competitors – including its two closest rivals, the high-performance but non-foiling American trimarans, Phaedo3 and Mighty Merloe.
Unlike Phaedo3 and Mighty Merloe, MaseratiMulti70 uses L-shaped hydrofoil dagger boards to lift its three hulls completely out of the water in winds above 14 knots, enabling it to achieve breath taking speeds above the water. During training in San Francisco recently the crew touched 44.56 knots (51.2 miles per hour, 82.5 kilometres per hour).
“The forecast looks good, even though there will be light winds at the start” Soldini said. “The trade winds should be stable and in the range of 13-20 knots. We start to fly in winds above 14 knots and really get going fast in the range up to 20 knots. But the real challenge of the race will be to avoid the objects and debris floating in the water that could damage our foils or rudders. The infamous island of plastic is in the Pacific Ocean and we have seen a lot of debris in the water here when we have been training. “Apart from that, we are really excited: the boat is fine and really fast. We have had some tiring months in the boatyard and the Maserati’s team have worked hard to get us ready for this race. Now, we can’t wait to get started.”
The current multihull race record of five days, nine hours, 18 minutes and 26 seconds, set by Bruno Peyron’s French 86-foot catamaran Explorer, has remained unbeaten for 20 years
Fans of MaseratiMulti70 can follow the boat’s progress on the team’s website here:
https://maserati.soldini.it/cartography/
