Not many hours after the start, a few miles from Saba, Maserati Multi 70 and Argo took the lead of the multihulls fleet: around 19:00 local time (23:00 UTC), the Italian trimaran overtook DNA F4 Falcon, which set sail 2 hours and 20 minutes earlier. After rounding Saint Martin, around midnight on Tuesday 19 February local time (04:00 UTC) Maserati Multi 70 started speeding southwards, reaching speeds of 37 knots.
Soldini explains: “It was a really great race, the wind was strong and we had to perform several manoeuvres. On the first leg, as we slalomed around the Northern islands, we were able to outdistance Argo and to gain a significant advantage over our direct competitor: I must really compliment the crew for the clean and precise manoeuvres”.
On Tuesday morning (local time), the Italian trimaran reached Guadeloupe, the most critical leg of the race: the tall mountains on the island negatively affected the wind. Giovanni Soldini and his team therefore decided to sail a few miles from shore and they were able to reach Les Saintes, the southernmost point of the course, without losing too much speed.
“After we reached Guadeloupe we had a problem with the solent, the main headsail, which made us lose a lot of time. For many hours we were forced to use only the foresail so we lost most of the advantage we had, until we were able to solve the problem”.
The Italian crew is satisfied with the performance aboard Maserati Multi 70. Giovanni Soldini comments: “We’re really happy about Maserati Multi 70: after two years of work the boat is in great shape and we learned how to sail her quite well. Every manoeuvre aboard requires loads of operations, many more than aboard a classic MOD 70, but now we’re able to do it super quickly”.
Giovanni Soldini and his Team hope to reconfirm these excellent results during the Newport to Cabo San Lucas Race, starting on 17 March 2019, the next event in Maserati Multi 70’s 2019 Racing Season.
