Less than 24 hours to the start of the 8th edition of the RORC Transatlantic Race. Maserati Multi 70 and Giovanni Soldini greet the arrival on board of Fila and join the UNESCO Ocean Decade program.
The 8th edition of the RORC Transatlantic Race, organized by the Royal Ocean Racing Club in collaboration with Yacht Club de France, will start tomorrow, January 8, 2022 at 11:00 UTC/local time.
Maserati Multi 70 and the other 31 yachts entered in the race will set off in two slightly staggered fleets (at 11:00 UTC the multihulls, at 11:10 UTC the monohulls) from Puerto Calero, Lanzarote, and will cover 2995 miles passing the Canary Islands and sailing across the Atlantic Ocean to the island of Grenada, in the Eastern Caribbean.
Maserati Multi 70 will sail the Ocean in foiling set up, challenging in a highly competitive race the three rival multihulls, two of them equipped with the latest generation foils: Brian Thompson's Argo (USA), and PowerPlay with british sailors Giles Scott (tactician of Ineos Team UK in the America's Cup and winner of two Olympic gold medals in the Finn class) and Miles Seddon (who set the record on this route with Phaedo3 in 2015). The Italian team's third competitor is the Antoine Rabaste's 80ft maxi trimaran Ultim Emotion 2 (FRA). The common goal will be to break the record of 5 days, 22 hours, 46 minutes and 03 seconds set by Lloyd Thornburg's MOD70 Phaedo 3 in 2015.
"We foresee a beautiful and exciting race, even if the weather situation at the moment seems to be complicated by a rather low depression that makes the trade wind disappear and therefore the classic route to the Caribbean looks slow and with little wind. Maybe the solution will be to look for more stable winds around the low and then take a northerly route despite some difficult passages," explains Giovanni Soldini. "The race will be very close with three equal boats - Maserati Multi 70, PowerPlay and Argo - and Ultim Emotion 2, which is bigger and very dangerous".
Maserati Multi 70 participates in the RORC Transatlantic Race for the third time, after competing in the editions of 2016 and 2018, when it crossed the finish line first with an elapsed time of 6 days, 18 hours, 54 minutes and 3 seconds. The crew that will accompany skipper Giovanni Soldini is made up of 5 expert sailors, already crew members: Vittorio Bissaro, Oliver Herrera Perez, Thomas Joffrin, Francesco Pedol, Matteo Soldini.
For Giovanni Soldini and the entire team of Maserati Multi 70, the trans-oceanic race marks the beginning of a new season of great technical and sporting challenges, new partnerships, and programs to safeguard the Oceans.
Fila - The return of a historic partnership
On the starting line, Giovanni Soldini greets the return on board of FILA, a sports brand with a history of challenges and innovations lasting more than 110 years and partner of glorious oceanic enterprises since 1996. In addition to a past of adventures in deep-sea navigation that has left indelible records and also produced a sailing jacket that has become part of the collective imagination, what they have in common is audacity, performance as a place to measure oneself against oneself and the elements, and a strong tension towards the new. Today the partnership is renewed and, from the starting line, Soldini and FILA will once again leave together towards the horizons of 2022.
Save the Ocean, protect our future - Engagement with UNESCO - Ocean Decade
In conjunction with a competitive program that aims to bring to full maturity the potential of the multihull in ocean foiling, Giovanni Soldini joins the Ocean Literacy program, promoted by UNESCO through the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) and aimed at increasing everyone's awareness and knowledge about the sea (oceanliteracy.unesco.org).
The United Nations declared 2021/2030 the Decade of Marine Sciences for Sustainable Development: a call for mobilization addressed to the scientific community, governments, the private sector and civil society to put energy, research and technological innovation at the service of concrete results in protecting the health of the oceans.
In line with these objectives, in the spring the trimaran will also be transformed into an oceanographic laboratory, with the installation of a system capable of constantly analyzing the water in order to measure the amount of co2 present on the surface and make the data collected available to the scientific community.
Maserati - Renewed the collaboration devoted to innovation
The collaboration with Maserati, the main sponsor that not only gives its name to the boat, but also collaborates with Giovanni Soldini in the process of transferring technological know-how applied to the "laboratory boat", continues. The engineers of the Maserati Innovation Lab, in collaboration with Soldini and his team, constantly analyze the data collected during the navigations in order to study and develop systems capable of optimizing the trimaran's performance. Technological innovation, uncompromising performance, the desire to compete and win: this is what unites the House of the Trident and Maserati Multi 70.
Maserati Multi 70 - The crew
Aboard Maserati Multi 70, Giovanni Soldini is accompanied by 5 professional sailors, already crew members:
Vittorio Bissaro (ITA) - born in 1987, he started sailing as a child, on Optimist and Laser, and then switched to catamarans. He participated in the 2016 Rio Olympics in the Nacra 17 class finishing in fifth place and won the Nacra17 World Championship in 2019. Aboard Maserati Multi 70 he participated twice in the RORC 600 Carribean (in 2017 and 2019), in the 2017 edition of the Transpacific Yacht Race, as well as taking part in training and transfers. He also participated in the Rolex Middle Sea Race in 2018 and was part of the trimaran's crew on the occasion of two records set in 2021.
Oliver Herrera Perez (ESP) - born in Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands in 1987, he started sailing at the age of 9 in an Optimist, before moving on to racing as an adult on Ims 500s, Swan 45s and Rc44s. Already part of the crew of the Maserati VOR 70, he continues to race as bowman on the Maserati Multi 70. He has participated in most of the trimaran's regattas, records and transfers.
Thomas Joffrin (FRA) - from the Côtes-d'Armor in Brittany, he is 22 years old and has been working in the sailing world since 2018. He was part of the Ultim Emotion 2 maxi trimaran team for two years and in June 2021 he participated in the Ocean Race Europe with the Austrian team. He has 4 transatlantics to his credit and over 50 thousand miles in race and transfer.
Francesco Pedol (ITA) - professional Skipper, he is experiences in long distance deliveries and has many Atlantic crossings to his credit.
Since May 2021 he is member of the Maserati Multi 70 Team, both as a crew member and shore team.
Matteo Soldini (ITA) - is member of the shore team and has been involved in the Maserati Multi 70 project since its inception, having taken part in almost all the transfers of the Maserati VOR 70. He has numerous Atlantic crossings under his belt and has participated in many offshore races. On board Maserati Multi 70 he has participated in the vast majority of regattas, records and transfers carried out, accumulating many miles of sailing.