Maserati Multi 70 and Giovanni Soldini arrived late on Monday night in Lanzarote, Canary Islands, from where the 5th edition of the RORC Transatlantic Race, organized by the Royal Ocean Racing Club, will start on Saturday November 24th, 2018: approximately 2995 miles across the Atlantic Ocean to Grenada, Caribbean.
During the delivery, right before reaching the Strait of Gibraltar, the Italian trimaran lost its starboard rudder’s blade. “It happened on Sunday night,” explains skipper Giovanni Soldini. “We probably bumped into some sort of big net or fishing gear. The fuse system unhooked, as was expected, but the rudder’s blade got tangled and it was strongly pulled downwards, breaking its blocks and slipping out of the fitting”.
The rudder’s fuse system, assembled aboard Maserati Multi 70 during the summer, was designed to limit the damages in case of violent shock with floating objects, letting the rudder’s blade rise above the water. In this case, because it got tangled, the blade couldn’t get out of the water, but the fuse system was able to save the bushes, the tubes and the fitting.
The Italian Team is already working to solve the problem: the T-shaped lost rudder will be replaced with a classic MOD rudder, so the trimaran will be able to sail, but it won’t be able to fly port tack.
Soldini comments: “It’s clearly not the ideal condition, but we’re fit and determined: we will do our best as usual and we will fight tooth and nail!”
On the starting line, alongside Maserati Multi 70 and Giovanni Soldini’s crew, will be the direct rival PowerPlay, the English MOD 70 skippered by Ned Collier Wakefield, which was already challenged by the Italian trimaran in October during the Rolex Middle Sea Race.
The two trimarans, as well as competing with each other, will have to challenge the race’s speed record for multihulls, which belongs to Lloyd Thornburg. Aboard the American trimaran Phaedo3, he crossed the finish line in 5 days, 22 hours, 46 minutes and 3 seconds in 2015.
In this edition of the transoceanic race, in addition to the two MOD 70s, there will be 8 more teams: the Class 40s Eärendil, Hydra e Sirius, the First 47.7 Kali, the Cookson 50 Kuka 3, the Baltic 130 My Song, the Sun Fast 3600 Black Sheep and the XP 44 Xtra Staerk.
Photo Mikel Prieto
