The new challenge against Argo and PowerPlay has started
Modena, 24th February 2020 – Giovanni Soldini and Maserati Multi 70 set sail today, at 11.30 local time (15.30 UTC, 16.30 Italian time) from Fort Charlotte, Antigua, for the 12th edition of the RORC Caribbean 600. The race, organized by the Royal Ocean Racing Club, attracted 74 entrants for this edition, from more than 20 nations, divided in 8 classes. Among the multihulls, with Maserati Multi 70, are 7 other boats.
The RORC Caribbean 600 is the first challenge in which Maserati Multi 70 is participating with the new and already iconic mainsail that, hoisted on February 21st, has unveiled for the first time the logo of the MC20, the super sports Maserati that will be presented at the end of May in Modena. A tribute from Giovanni Soldini to Maserati and to the work done by the engineers from the Maserati Innovation Lab, who were able to transfer innovative contents of the Maserati world on this high performance trimaran.
In the multihulls class, Maserati Multi 70’s direct competitors are the two 70’s already challenged in many occasions: the American Argo, skippered by Jason Carroll, and the English PowerPlay, skippered by Peter Cunningham. Argo’s Team, who spent the past months setting up a system of flying foils and rudders, is sailing in MOD mode for this race, due to technical problems with the flying appendixes. Aboard the American trimaran there is a strong and skilled crew: the English Brian Thompson, great multihull expert, and the French Franck Cammas, an extremely successful sailor. PowerPlay is also sailing in classic MOD mode, with an equally skilled crew, among which Loick Peyron, one of the most important French sailors.
On the starting line were three more trimarans – the 80’ Ultim’Emotion 2, the 63’ Shockwave and the 60’ Ineffable – and two catamarans – the 53’ Fujin and the 78’ Allegra.
The weather expected for this edition of this race is not the most favourable: the models show an unstable trade wind, with light breeze especially for the first 12 hours of racing. Giovanni Soldini, a few moments before setting sail, commented: “Maserati Multi 70 with the flying foils gives her best with around 15 knots of wind, so these conditions are not ideal, but we will fight tooth and nail as always! We’re very happy to participate in this edition of the regatta, we’re expecting it to be very hard-fought and competitive. The level of our opponents is very high so we will have to do our best and never give up: it will be an exciting race for sure!”
The race course, 600 miles long, both starts and finishes in Fort Charlotte, Antigua, and goes around 11 islands in the Lesser Antilles, in the Caribbean. At the sound of the starting signal, the competitors started sailing North, they will pass Barbuda, Nevis, Saba and Saint Barth, then they will round Saint Martin and head South to Guadeloupe. After rounding the island, they will head back North, touching the last mark off Bermuda before heading towards the finish line, back in Antigua. The course is diverse, it requires many manoeuvres and it features different winds and currents, which make the regatta particularly interesting and challenging.
Aboard Maserati Multi 70, Giovanni Soldini is sailing with a crew of 6 men: the Italians Guido Broggi (mainsail trimmer), Nico Malingri and Matteo Soldini (both grinders and trimmers), the Spanish Carlos Hernandez Robayna (trimmer) and Oliver Herrera Perez (bowman) and the French Ronan Cointo (tactician).
The speed record of the race belongs to Giovanni Soldini himself: in 2019 Maserati Multi 70 crossed the finish line with an elapsed time of 1 day, 6 hours and 49 minutes.
