Maserati Multi 70 and Giovanni Soldini arrived late on Monday night in Lanzarote, Canary Islands, ahead of the start of the 5th edition of the RORC Transatlantic Race, organized by the Royal Ocean Racing Club. The race will start on Saturday 24th November 2018 sailing approximately 2,995 miles across the Atlantic Ocean to finish in Grenada, Caribbean.

During the delivery, right before reaching the Strait of Gibraltar, the Italian trimaran lost its starboard rudder’s blade. “It happened on Sunday night,” explains skipper Giovanni Soldini. “We probably bumped into some sort of large net or fishing gear. The fuse system unhooked, as was expected, but the rudder’s blade got tangled and it was pulled downwards with force, breaking its blocks and slipping out of the fitting”.

The rudder’s fuse system, assembled aboard Maserati Multi 70 during the summer, was designed to limit the damages in case of violent impact with floating objects, allowing the rudder’s blade to rise above the water. In this case, because it got stuck, the blade was unable to get out of the water, but the fuse system was able to save the bushes, the tubes and the fitting.

The Italian Team is already working to solve the problem: the lost T-shaped rudder will be replaced with a classic MOD rudder, so the trimaran will be able to sail, but it won’t be able to fly port tack.

Soldini comments: “It’s clearly not the ideal condition, but we’re fit and determined: we will do our best as usual and we will fight tooth and nail!”

On the starting line, alongside Maserati Multi 70 and Giovanni Soldini’s crew, will be the direct rival PowerPlay, the English MOD 70 skippered by Ned Collier Wakefield, which was previously faced by the Italian trimaran in October during the Rolex Middle Sea Race.

The two trimarans, as well as competing with each other, will be racing to beat the multihull speed record which belongs to Lloyd Thornburg. Aboard the American trimaran Phaedo3, he crossed the finish line in 5 days, 22 hours, 46 minutes and 3 seconds in 2015.

In this edition of the transoceanic race, in addition to the two MOD 70s, there will be eight other teams: the Class 40s Eärendil, Hydra e Sirius, the First 47.7 Kali, the Cookson 50 Kuka 3, the Baltic 130 My Song, the Sun Fast 3600 Black Sheep and the XP 44 Xtra Staerk.

Aboard Maserati Multi 70, skipper Giovanni Soldini is joined by six professional sailors, all crew members in the last edition of the Rolex Middle Sea Race: the Italian Guido Broggi (mainsail trimmer), Nico Malingri and Matteo Soldini (both grinder and trimmer); the Spanish Carlos Hernandez Robayna (trimmer) and Oliver Herrera Perez (bowman); the French François Robert (pitman). 

The challenge is supported by Maserati, the main sponsor that gives its name to the trimaran and Aon as co-sponsor, along with the official clothing supplier, Ermenegildo Zegna.

A special thanks also to Boero Bartolomeo S.p.A. and Garmin Marine.