Maserati Multi 70 is ready to attempt the record on the Fastnet Original Course. The crew plans to set sail today, Friday May 7th, around 19.00 GMT (21.00 Italian time). Giovanni Soldini’s goal is to improve the time set just a month ago by Peter Cunningham’s MOD70 PowerPlay: 25 hours, 4 minutes and 18 seconds, with an average speed of 23,73 knots.
After conquering two other records in the English Channel in the past few weeks, from Plymouth to La Rochelle (12 hours, 15 minutes, 21 seconds) and from Cowes to Dinard (4 hours, 30 minutes, 49 seconds), Soldini and his Team are ready for the third difficult challenge. The route, 595 miles long, is the original course for the Fastnet Race, the historical regatta held every two years south of the UK. The course starts off Cowes, on the Isle of Wight, passes Land’s End and crosses the Celtic Sea until the Fastnet Rock, south of Ireland, before going back to the finish line off Plymouth, leaving Bishop Rock to the left.
Soldini and his crew have been analysing the development of the weather for days to attempt the challenge: «This is not an easy record at all and the weather is quite complicated: at the start there won’t be much wind, that will get stronger only once we reach the Isles of Scilly. From there we should sail on a beam reach quite fast to the Fastnet. There are always many variables, we have to avoid loosing too much time at the beginning and we hope there won’t be high waves. This window is not perfect, but it’s possible and we don’t have much time left to wait for better conditions, so we accept the challenge and we will give it all!»
For this record, 5 skilled sailors will get on board the trimaran alongside Giovanni Soldini: among them, for the first time on Maserati Multi 70, Gerardo Siciliano, who was already part of Soldini’s crew on ORMA60 TIM and part of Luna Rossa’s team. With them also Guido Broggi, Carlos Hernandez Robayna, Oliver Herrera Perez and Matteo Soldini.
Maserati Multi 70’s Team continues the research for new techniques and technologies to improve the trimaran’s performance: innovation, speed and passion are just some of the key words at the heart of the collaboration between Soldini and the engineers from the Maserati Innovation Lab. The two teams work hand in hand, closely analysing the trimaran’s performances to find original solutions to reach increasingly higher speeds. Soldini said: «During the last records we reached mind-blowing speeds, over 40 knots, and we tested many new things installed during the winter. What’s great about Maserati Multi 70 is that every day we learn something new: this record is a perfect opportunity to test some changes we did to the right side rudder, we hope they will give us joy!»
Photo © Raffaele Origone
