At 21.59 12” on Thursday October 17th local time (14.59 UTC, 16.59 Italian time), Maserati Multi 70 crossed the finish line of the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club Nha Trang Rally (ex Hong Kong to Vietnam Race) off Nha Trang, Vietnam. Giovanni Soldini and his Team completed the race with an elapsed time of 1 day, 7 hours, 49 minutes and 12 seconds.
Maserati Multi 70’s direct competitor, Orma 60 SHK Scallywag Fuku, skippered by David Witt, crossed the finish line in first place at 20.19 27” local time (13.19 UTC, 15.19 Italian time), winning Multihull Line Honours with an elapsed time of 1 day, 6 hours, 9 minutes and 27 seconds.
Maserati Multi 70 and SHK Scallywah Fuku set sail from Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong, on Wednesday October 16th at 15.10 local time (7.10 UTC, 9.10 Italian time). Inside the canal they met light upwind conditions and SHK Scallywag Fuku quickly crossed the starting line: the Hong Kong-based Orma 60 is very light and is equipped with a centreboard ideal for those conditions. Outside the canal, the wind became stronger, the Italian trimaran started catching up with its competitor and overtook it at 14 UTC.
Giovanni Soldini explains: «After passing our competitors, we started to gain a nice advantage. Last night was incredible, the sea was very rough, so we were flying low, but Maserati Multi 70 sails very well and we were able to achieve great speeds, up to 38 knots!»
Soldini continues: «It was a great and hard-fought race, we though we’d already won. 50 miles from the finish line we were sailing at 25 knots, with 10 miles of advantage over SHK Scallywag Fuku: we could see them on the horizon, under normal conditions it would be impossible to catch up from that distance. Suddenly the sky got cloudy and many downpours started. At first we were able to catch the wind coming from them, but then a huge storm absorbed us, leaving us with no wind at all for two hours. Our competitors were 20 km away from us and were able to reach the finish line undisturbed, while we were fighting between one cloudburst and the other».
Aboard Maserati Multi 70, skipper Giovanni Soldini raced with a 7-man crew: shift supervisors Guido Broggi and Oliver Herrera Perez; grinders Furio Carboni, Lorenzo Jovanotti Cherubini and Nico Malingri; trimmer and grinder Matteo Soldini; tactician Ronan Cointo.
