At 8:58 a.m. local time (18:58 UTC; 20:58 Italian time) on Thursday, July 6, Giovanni Soldini and the crew of Maserati Multi70 crossed the finish line of the 52nd edition of the Transpacific Yacht Race (Transpac) in second position behind the MOD70 Orion, skippered by Justin Shaffer, which won the Line Honours, finishing the race at 2:48 a.m. local time with a time of 4 days 17 hours, 48 minutes and a 6-hour lead.
The team aboard with Soldini, consisting of Guido Broggi (ITA), Oliver Herrera Perez (ESP), Francesco Malingri (ITA), Francesco Pedol (ITA), Matteo Soldini (ITA) and Lucas Valenza-Troubat (FRA), had set off from Los Angeles on Saturday, July 1, at 11:55 a.m. local time (18:55 UTC; 20:55 Italian time), and after covering 2324 miles in the Pacific Ocean, finished the race in 4 days, 23 hours, 55 seconds.
Argo, the third competitor in the MOD70 class, with skipper Jason Carroll and navigator Brian Thompson, on the other hand, retired within hours of the start due to an engine failure that forced the team to return to Los Angeles.
The race was particularly challenging for the Maserati Multi70 team, which was unable to rely on racing sails and flying appendages. In fact, a customs problem had delayed the arrival of the support container on which the sports equipment was traveling, forcing the trimaran to do without the flying trim.
“It was a difficult regatta for us,” Giovanni Soldini commented upon arrival, “We started with a bit of a handicap especially on the sails, because we had sails from 2019 that have done a thousand adventures and the racing sails were left in the container along with the foils. A pity because apart from the first phase of the regatta where there was little wind, then it was really super stable flying conditions.”
After a light wind start, the trimarans had to navigate through a vast area of extremely variable wind. Orion hooked up with the Trade Wind first and encountered favorable conditions to increase the gap: “We mainly clashed with Orion, which turned out to be a very fast and to the point boat. In the initial phase of the race we were more in trouble as a matter of pure speed, which allowed our opponents to gain a margin of advantage that was greatly amplified going into the Trade Wind. On these boats 1 or 2 knots make a huge difference in performance, and so from 12 miles the gap immediately became 30. Then a very strange thing happened: the whole fleet was sailing on course 270 in about 60-degree winds and Orion, perhaps along a storm wake, for one day sailed on course 250 in 20- to 30-degree winds and speed averages of 28/29 knots in a different wind that was all its own. This made all the difference and left us in hot pursuit. Kudos to the opponents who sailed a splendid race, they were always very fast and never made a mistake and there was no history. Let’s hope it goes better next time!”
Maserati Multi70, the only Italian boat in the race, participated in this competition for the third time after the 2017 and 2019 editions.
After a stop in Hawaii, it will resume the Ocean in the direction of Japan, along a scientific route that can be followed on the AROUNDTHEBLUE.ORG platform.
Photo ©Rudy Castorina
