The race is 24 hours away and the teams of the 71-boat fleet are making their final preparations before the start of the 14th edition of the RORC Caribbean 600, promoted by the Royal Ocean Racing Club. The start sequence from Fort Charlotte, Antigua, will see the MOCRA class start last, half an hour behind the first group. The appointment on the line for the multihulls is therefore set for tomorrow, Monday 20 February, at 11:30 am local time (3:30 pm UTC, 4:30 pm Italian time).
Giovanni Soldini, together with the crew of Maserati Multi70, will challenge in flying trim the direct rival Zoulou (FRA) who will have on board a sailing legend such as Loick Peyron and Erik Maris at the helm.
The race, fast and tactical, is a chase of manoeuvres and continuous changes in the direction of the winds and currents. A 600-mile slalom that from Antigua heads north, rounds Barbuda, Nevis, Saba and Saint Barth, rounds the island of Saint Martin and heads south to round Guadeloupe, the last buoy off Barbuda, and return to Antigua.
The weather conditions, on the eve of the start, promise to favour a high-speed edition for the multihulls that will also sail for the regatta record with which Maserati Multi70 has an open account. With a time of 29 hours, 38 minutes and 44 seconds in fact, last year, Jason Carroll’s Argo with Brian Thompson at the helm, not only stole the Line Honours from the trident team by less than two minutes, but also broke the previous record, set in 2019 by Maserati Multi70 itself.
“This year we have perfect weather with a stable and sustained trade wind,” explains Giovanni Soldini: “the forecasts tell us that it will be a fast race and they are definitely the best forecasts we have had in the last 4-5 years, It will be very important as always the passage to Guadeloupe, where the mountains are really high and the downwind is very severe even with strong wind conditions. It is the 600 miles of the Caribbean, with its own characteristics: you must not make mistakes with angles and manoeuvres, you have to play in advance and pay great attention to the downwinds of the islands that can turn into traps. In short, every little mistake in this regatta counts, but we are ready!”
The crew that will accompany Giovanni Soldini is made up of 7 experienced sailors: Guido Broggi (ITA), Oliver Herrera Perez (ESP), Thomas Joffrin (FRA), Francesco Pedol (ITA), Alberto Riva (ITA), Matteo Soldini (ITA), Lucas Valenza-Troubat (FRA).
Maserati Multi70 is competing in the RORC Caribbean 600 for the fifth time having raced the 2017, 2019, 2020 and 2022 editions.
