11 July 2017

MaseratiMulti70 finishes the Transpac Race in Honolulu in third place

Tuesday 11 July 2017 - Giovanni Soldini’s MaseratiMulti70 crossed the Transpac Finish finish line off Honolulu under a full moon at 11.18 and 55 seconds Italian time today, July 11 (23.18 and 55 seconds, on July 10 in Hawaii).

Wind conditions during the 2,225-miles long race were in the 13 – 21 knot range – excellent for fast multihull sailing. Soldini’s men made good use of MaseratiMulti70’s capability to fly above the water on its hydrofoil dagger boards and on the second day at sea they edged ahead of their main rivals – the non-foiling American trimarans Phaedo3 and Mighty Merloe.

However, the situation changed on Sunday when MaseratiMulti70’s starboard rudder assembly was destroyed by a collision in the dark with an unseen solid chunk of ocean debris. The crew stopped the boat and despite strong winds and choppy seas they managed to retrieve the snapped off rudder blade remained attached to the boat by a control line.
It took a little over an hour before the Italian boat was back in the race and although limited by the missing rudder on port gybe, MaseratiMulti70 could sail at full speed on starboard gybe. The sailors pushed the boat to its limits to try to claw back some of the miles lost to their rivals and at one point looked to be gaining ground. Ultimately though, they had to settle for a third-place arrival in Hawaii.

Although they did not get the result they were looking for, the MaseratiMulti70 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. 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.

Giovanni Soldini

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