Maserati Multi 70 and Giovanni Soldini set net Plymouth to La Rochelle record
by Negri Firman 16 Apr 2021 07:30 BST
16 April 2021
Maserati Multi 70 - Plymouth to La Rochelle record © Negri Firman
Giovanni Soldini and Maserati Multi 70's crew crossed the finish line off La Rochelle today April 16th at 2:21:42 GMT (4:21:42 Italian time), conquering a new record: 329 miles from Plymouth (UK) to La Rochelle (FR) in 12 hours, 15 minutes and 21 seconds, with an average speed of 26,84 knots. The Italian Team's record is around 2 hours shorter than the previous time, set by Lloyd Thornburg and Brian Thompson aboard Phaedo3 in 2015, of 14 hours, 5 minutes and 20 seconds.
Maserati Multi 70 set sail off Plymouth yesterday at 14:06:21 GMT (16:06:21 Italian time) and headed towards the north-western end of France, sailing with an average speed over 32-33 knots and reaching peaks of 44 knots. Soldini explains: "Crossing the Channel we were sailing very fast, with 20-25 knots of north-easterly wind, then we arrived to Ouessant and it was great: the passage between the island and the coast is very narrow and we were sailing "a cannamorta" at 35 knots! Afterwards, sailing down along the French coast, the wind was 10-15 degrees more narrow than predicted and we slowed down, but we were able to achieve an excellent result, we're very happy!"
The record is pending the World Sailing Speed Record Council's ratification.
For this challenge, Giovanni Soldini sailed aboard Maserati Multi 70 with Giulio Bertelli, Guido Broggi, Carlos Hernandez Robayna, Oliver Herrera Perez, and Matteo Soldini.
The Team is sailing back to their base in Cherbourg (FR), from where they will keep studying the weather conditions for the next few weeks to identify ideal windows to attempt to beat other two records in the English Channel: the Cowes to Dinard (the Channel Record) and the Fastner Original Course record (from Cowes to Plymouth, sailing around the Fastnet Lighthouse, south of Ireland).
During the winter, Maserati Multi 70's Team worked in the shipyard to develop many changes to the trimaran: they built a better-performing daggerboard that's optimized to fly, they installed latest generation electronic components and they designed a new central rudder that, when installed, will help stabilize the trimaran while flying. Giovanni Soldini and his Team are also continuing the precious collaboration with the Maserati Innovation Lab's engineers: together they are studying a system to optimize the rudders and make them more efficient, in order to push the trimaran to even higher average speeds.