At 20.49 00” on Tuesday February 19th local time (00.49 00” on Wednesday February 20th UTC) Maserati Multi 70 was the first to cross the finish line of the 11th edition of the RORC Caribbean 600, organized by the Royal Ocean Racing Club, winning Line Honours Multihulls and setting the new race record. After racing neck and neck with American MOD 70 Argo for the last 30 miles, Maserati Multi 70 finished the race with an elapsed time of 1 day, 6 hours, 49 minutes and 0 seconds. Argo crossed the finish line at 20.56 04” local time, 7 minutes after Maserati Multi 70.
Aboard the Italian trimaran, skipper Giovanni Soldini was joined by 7 professional sailors: the Italians Vittorio Bissaro (tactician), Guido Broggi (mainsail trimmer), Nico Malingri and Matteo Soldini (both grinder and trimmer); the Spanish Carlos Hernandez Robayna (trimmer) and Oliver Herrera Perez (bowman); the French Claude Thélier (trimmer).
The RORC Caribbean 600 starts and finishes in Antigua. The race course is 600 miles long and heads North as far as Saint Martin and South to Guadeloupe, taking in 11 islands in the Lesser Antilles, in the Caribbean, including Barbuda, Nevis, Saba and Saint Barth.
Maserati Multi 70 and American MOD 70 Argo, skippered by Jason Carroll, set off from Fort Charlotte, Antigua, at 14 local time (18 UTC and 19 Italian time) on Monday February 18th, competing in the Multi/MOD 70 class. The Royal Ocean Racing Club exceptionally created the class for the two trimarans, following the decision to delay their start to allow Argo’s Team to finish the repair work after they capsized during a training race on Friday.
The Team aboard Argo was very strong and skilled: “Argo’s crew is amazing,” explains Giovanni Soldini. “Brian Thompson managed Phaedo3 for 6 years and he has all kinds of experiences, he really understands how these boats work, then there was also François Gabart (winner of the 2012-13 Vendée Globe and holder of the Around the World Singlehanded record –ed.): they’re all extremely professional and experienced people!”
Not many hours after the start, a few miles from Saba, Maserati Multi 70 and Argo took the lead of the multihulls fleet: around 19 local time (23 UTC), the Italian trimaran overtook DNA F4 Falcon, which set sail 2 hours and 20 minutes earlier. After rounding Saint Martin, around midnight on Tuesday February 19th local time (4 UTC) Maserati Multi 70 started speeding Southwards, reaching 37 knots of speed.
Soldini explains: “It was a really great race, the wind was strong and we had to perform several manoeuvres. On the first leg, as we slalomed around the Northern islands, we worked like crazy: I must really compliment the crew for the clean and precise manoeuvres”.
On Tuesday morning (local time), the Italian trimaran reached Guadeloupe, the most critical leg of the race: the tall mountains on the island negatively affected the wind. Giovanni Soldini and his Team decided to sail a few miles off the coast and they were able to reach Les Saintes, the southernmost point of the course, without losing too much speed.
“After we reached Guadeloupe we had a problem with the solent, the main headsail, which made us lose a lot of time. For many hours we were forced to use only the foresail so we lost most of the advantage we had, until we were able to solve the problem”.
The Italian crew is satisfied with the performance aboard Maserati Multi 70. Giovanni Soldini comments: “We’re really happy about Maserati Multi 70: after two years of work the boat is in great shape and we learned how to sail her quite well. Every manoeuvre aboard requires loads of operations, many more than aboard a classic MOD 70, but now we’re able to do it super quickly”.
The next appointment in Maserati Multi 70’s Racing Season will be the Newport to Cabo San Lucas Race, starting on March 17th, 2019.
Photo ©RORC/Arthur Daniel
