Maserati Multi 70 and Giovanni Soldini are ready to set sail for the 42nd edition of the Rolex Middle Sea Race, organized by the Royal Ocean Racing Club, that counts 120 participants from more than 20 countries. The 6 competing multihulls will be the first to cross the starting line, in Grand Harbour, La Valletta, at 9 UTC, tomorrow Saturday October 23rd.
Maserati Multi 70’s direct competitors are the two MOD 70s Argo (USA), skippered by Brian Thompson, and Mana (ITA), skippered by Jeff Mearing and the legendary sailor Loick Peyron. Maserati Multi 70 will sail in MOD asset without flying appendixes, with classic foils and rudders. Giovanni Soldini said: «We had a gentlemen’s agreement with Argo’s team that we would have raced with the same non-flying configuration, to have an even race between MOD 70s with Mana as well, but we were very surprised because we found out just two days ago that Argo, after seeing the weather forecasts, will race with flying foils. We’re ready for the challenge nonetheless, the boat is in great shape and we will fight tooth and nail!»
This edition of the regatta is expected to be more windy than usual on almost the whole course, with the exception of a few wind holes, like in the Messina Strait. The situation south of Sicily is still unclear, while north of the island the wind is expected to reach 25-30 knots.
Aboard Maserati Multi 70 with Giovanni Soldini for this race there will be 7 men crew: boat captain Guido Broggi, olimpic sailor Vittorio Bissaro, experienced yachtsmen Lorenzo Bressani, Francesco Pedol, Oliver Herrera Perez, Matteo Soldini and young French Thomas Joffrin. The skipper commented: «The crew is great, we’re very happy to have Lorenzo Bressani back on board: after last year’s experience he decided to come back for this year’s edition of the Rolex Middle Sea Race. Also, for the first time, we have Thomas Joffrin racing with us, he is a very young sailor, 22 years old, but he already has a lot of experience».
The 606-mile long course of the race goes anti-clockwise around Sicily, with both starting and finish line in La Valletta, staying north of Stromboli, west of Favignana and Pantelleria and south of Lampedusa. The multihulls record belongs to Maserati Multi 70, set in 2016 (2 days, 1 hours, 25 minutes and 1 second), while the overall record is maxi monohull Rambler’s, set in 2007 by George David (1 day, 23 hours, 55 minutes and 3 seconds).
The other three multihulls in the MOCRA class with the MOD 70s are the catamaran ORC 50 Five Oceans, the 47’ trimaran Minimole and the maxi 80’ trimaran Ultim’Emotion 2.
Photo © Rick Tomlinson
