Giovanni Soldini’s Maserati Multi70 crossed the Transpac Finish finish line off Honolulu under a full moon at 11.18 and 55 seconds Italian time, July 11 (23.18 and 55 seconds, on July 10 in Hawaii).

Although they did not get the result they were looking for, the Maserati Multi70 crew sailed a total of 2,636 miles on the four-and-a-half day crossing and were able to gather lots of valuable performance data that will help with their quest to fully master the art of offshore foiling.

“It was our first time sailing the boat when we could fly on both sides,” Soldini explained. “We learned a lot of new things about how to sail the boat and now we have a ton of data to analyse on the computer. Our goal is to build an accurate table that will help us better determine when are the best times to fly and when it is better not to."

“We are committed to the concept of an ocean-going flying boat and more than ever convinced that this is where the future of ocean racing lies. We need to put some thought into how we deal with the risk of ocean debris damaging the rudders and we have some innovative ideas to consider.”

The crew have been able to retrieve the shattered rudder on the back of the starboard (right hand) hull of the trimaran. The other rudders on the port (left hand) and the central hulls are undamaged and the crew are continuing to race towards the finish in Honolulu.

“We were sailing fast at 28 – 30 knots when we heard a big bang,” Soldini reported today. “We immediately stopped the boat and managed to retrieve the rudder blade that was still attached by a retaining line. That was quite a difficult procedure because it was during the night, with lots of wind and waves”.

The light winds at the start penalised Maserati Multi70 and handed the advantage to their closest rivals, the two high-performance American trimarans, Phaedo3 and Mighty Merloe – neither of which are set up for foiling.

Immediately after the start gun, Soldini’s men found themselves in the wind shadow of the two American boats but managed to tack into clear wind of around 8 – 10 knots and on a layline to the western tip of Catalina Island, some 35 miles away. Once around that point, the crew will look to turn their bows towards Hawaii.