On Tuesday 21 February at 18:25:45 local time (22:25:45 UTC, 23:25:45 Italian time), with an elapsed time of 1 day, 6 hours, 55 minutes and 45 seconds, Giovanni Soldini and the team of Maserati Multi70, crossed the finish line in second position of the 14th edition of the RORC Caribbean 600, organised by the Royal Ocean Racing Club. With a gap of just 11 seconds, rival MOD70 Zoulou, with Loick Peyron on board, won the multihull Line Honours at the end of a gruelling battle of manoeuvres between the islands of the Lesser Antilles.
Giovanni Soldini, together with Guido Broggi (ITA), Oliver Herrera Perez (ESP), Thomas Joffrin (FRA), Francesco Pedol (ITA), Alberto Riva (ITA), Matteo Soldini (ITA) and Lucas Valenza-Troubat (FRA), sailed in flying trim at averages of 21 knots, with peaks of 40, dominating overall a head-to-head race with their French adversaries.
Giovanni Soldini’s comment upon arrival: “First of all, congratulations to our adversaries. It was a crazy 600 miles and we did a great race, building up mile after mile, so much so that at the buoy north of Antigua we had built up a lead of about 13 miles, but then when we turned the buoy the wind ran out and the adversaries who sailed past an hour later were passing us at 28 knots, while we were sailing at 5 knots. However, we managed to catch up and overtake them at the Redonda mark and at the last windward mark we had a half-mile advantage, a margin that we maintained until the finish line, then the lay line mocked us by a handful of metres”.
In the last upwind leg, Maserati Multi70 and Zoulou created the last act of a breathtaking match race that bitterly recalled the photofinish of the 2022 edition, when Maserati Multi70 was less than two minutes behind Argo, which still holds the record of 1 day, 5 hours, 38 minutes and 44 seconds.
The regatta for the multihull class started on Monday 20 February 2022 at 11:30 local time (15:30 UTC, 16:30 Italian time). Maserati Multi70 participated in the RORC Caribbean 600 for the fifth time having raced in the 2017, 2019, 2020, 2022 and 2023 editions.
The timing will be ratified by the race organisation in the coming hours.
Photo © RORC / James Tomlinson
