Time.news – Giovanni Soldini and the Maserati Multi 70 crew have set a new record on the Plymouth-La Rochelle route. The boat crossed the finish line in La Rochelle at 2.21 GMT on Friday 16 April (4.21 Italian time) thus taking 12 hours, 15 minutes and 21 seconds to cover the 329 miles of the route, at an average speed of 26.84 knots.
The Italian team improves the previous record by about 2 hours, set by Lloyd Thornburg and Brian Thompson aboard Phaedo3 in 2015, 14 hours, 5 minutes and 20 seconds.
Maserati Multi 70 started off Plymouth at 14:06:21 GMT yesterday afternoon (16:06:21 Italian time) heading towards the north-western tip of France, maintaining a averages above 32-33 knots and reaching peaks of 44 knots of speed.
Soldini says: “Crossing the Channel we went very strong, with 20-25 knots of wind from the north-east, and arrived in Ouessant it was crazy: the passage between the island and the coast is very narrow and we were going to cannamorta at 35 knots ! Then, going down the French coast, the wind was 10-15 degrees tighter than expected and we slowed down a bit, but we managed to get a great result, we are really happy! “
The record is waiting to be ratified by the World Sailing Speed Record Council. On board Maserati Multi 70, for this feat, Giovanni Soldini sailed with Giulio Bertelli, Guido Broggi, Carlos Hernandez Robayna, Oliver Herrera Perez and Matteo Soldini.
The team is now back at their base in Cherbourg, France, from where they will continue to study the weather conditions over the next few weeks to identify the ideal windows to attempt break two more records in the English Channel: the Cowes-Dinard (Record of the English Channel) and the Fastnet Original Course (from Cowes to Plymouth, via the Fastnet lighthouse, south of Ireland).
In the winter months, during a long construction site, a note recalls, various modifications were made to the Maserati Multi 70: a more performing and optimized keel for flight was built, the latest generation electronic components were installed and a new central rudder, which once installed will make the flight more stable.
Giovanni Soldini and his team are also pursuing the collaboration with the Maserati Innovation Lab engineers: together they are studying a system to optimize the rudders and make them more effective, thus allowing the trimaran to reach higher average speeds.
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