Maserati Mod 70's Next Challenge

[Photoboy]

A new challenge for Giovanni Soldini and the Maserati Multi70 Team
From Hong Kong to London, retracing the 13.000 miles of the Tea Route




A new record to beat for Giovanni Soldini and the Maserati Multi70 Team:
After claiming the records for the United States' "Gold Route" from New York to San Francisco and the "Tea Clipper Trade Route" between San Francisco and Shanghai, China, the latest record attempt follows the route of the clipper ships that at the end of the 19th Century transported their cargoes of tea from Hong Kong to London via the Cape of Good Hope.
The current record time, set in 2008 by Frenchman Lionel Lemonchois and his eight-man crew aboard the 100-foot catamaran Gitana 13, is 41 days, 21 hours, 26 minutes and 34 seconds.
Giovanni Soldini aims to attempt the record breaking run in January 2018 aboard the Maserati Multi70 trimaran along with four expert ocean racing sailors : Sébastien Audigane (FRA), Guido Broggi (ITA), Oliver Herrera (ESP) and Alex Pella (ESP).




13,000 miles, 24,000 kilometres non-stop:
This is an uncommonly long route for a 70-foot multihull such as Maserati Multi70. To minimise the risk of damage, instead of sailing in foiling mode the boat will be set up in MOD configuration – although the work to develop the boat's foiling dagger boards continues with the support of the eminent high-performance yacht designer, Guillaume Verdier.

The main phases of the course:
First, out of Hong Kong and across the China Sea – a waterway highly congested by cargo boats and fishing vessels.
Then across the island-strewn Java Sea, including negotiating a 15-mile-wide strait between the islands of Java and Sumatra.
Next, crossing the Indian Ocean and the equator to round South Africa's Cape of Good Hope the "wrong" way, i.e. against the prevailing west to east winds.
After South Africa the boat will head up the South Atlantic Ocean to re-cross the equator. It will be winter time in the North Atlantic, meaning a strong chance of encountering low pressure systems that turn into ocean storms.
The final stage will be to sail through the English Channel, enter England's River Thames and sail to the finish line under the Elizabeth II Bridge a few miles from the centre of the city of London.

"Hong Kong to London is a historic and epic route, that's why we decided to take on this huge adventure," said Giovanni Soldini, currently in Hawaii, where he and the crew are completing the final maintenance work on the Italian trimaran.
"The story of the Clipper routes of the Victorian age is fascinating. Being first in London meant selling tea at three times the price of those who arrived later. It was on these routes that people first started to think about how to make boats sail faster and perform better and this was the origin of modern yacht design.
"For us though it's a sporting challenge. We want to beat Gitana's record, even though the French catamaran was 30 feet longer than our boat and this run is probably the longest any MOD70 has ever attempted. We expect to find good weather conditions in the Indian Ocean, but the North Atlantic Ocean in winter is unpredictable and I think that will be most complicated part of the whole route."

After undergoing a series of sea trials in Hawaii, Maserati Multi70 will set off at the end of November for Okinawa, Japan. After a final transfer to Hong Kong, Soldini and his crew will be on standby to depart on the record attempt the beginning of January 2018.


Editors Note:

Maserati Mod 70 has been on the hard in Honolulu since finishing this year's Transpac where she suffered quit a bit
of damage enroute. Just in the past month or so, crews have been feverishly working on her to get her back into
shape for another adventure...

[Panama Red]

Boy, If you look at the damage in the 2,200 nm Transpac they encountered, just think of the possibilities of a 13,000 nm voyage!

[Photoboy]

Charging Up For A Tea Route Record Run!

Maserati Multi 70 in final preparations for her quest for the Tea Route Record applies
solar panels in Hong Kong:



New photovoltaic panels for Maserati Multi 70!
We just installed twice as much Solbian panels as they were before for the Hong Kong-London record.
This will allow us to reduce weight on board and to be energetically autonomous, which is a fundamental aspect in long routes like this one.













Hong Kong - London is a historic and epic course, which is why we decided to launch ourselves into this great adventure.

Retracing the of the Victorian era is fascinating. On these crossings, there were the first developments to make boats faster and more efficient,
the origins of the yacht design, because arriving first in London meant selling tea at triple price.




"The tea route from China to London does have a racing history. The vessels weren't racing for glory, though, they were racing for profit. The first ship to land in London with a load of tea could demand the best price, and this is what pushed the design of the first tea clippers, as British companies tried to compete with faster, smaller American clipper ships. The ponderously slow merchantmen ships were no match for the most advanced technology of the 19th century, and the svelte, fast boats could carry precious cargo to market while the demand was still high, and the supply was still low. Clippers gave way to the massive Windjammers within a few decades, and the glory days when (legal) cargo vessels were sleek and speedy was relatively brief, but incredibly important to the evolution of modern sailing yachts."


41d 21h 26m 34s is the current record, set by Gitana XII back 2008

Additional Reading!

[Photoboy]

Getting Ship Shape For Tea Route Record Attempt




Maserati Multi70 is moored in Hong Kong’s harbour waiting to sail off for the Tea Route record from Hong Kong to London.

Giovanni Soldini and Maserati Multi70’s Team finished all the last touches before the navigation, they set up the new kitchen, got the pantry ready and they conducted some sea trials.

Now the crew is in stand-by, they are examining the weather conditions to identify the best time window to set sail.

[Prince of Whales]

I wonder if Giovanni has a winning lottery ticket in that 1st frame?

[Photoboy]

Maserati Multi 70 Rumbling In The Starting Blocks



No chance to start the record Hong Kong-London in the next 48 hours for Giovanni Soldini and the Maserati Multi70 crew (Guido Broggi, Oliver Herrera Perez, Alex Pella and Sébastien Audigane): this is the conclusion of today’s conversation between the skipper Soldini and Pierre Lasnier, the team’s routeur, after studying the latest weather forecast.

“Starting with the current models, we would have wind at the beginning, during the first days, but we risk to loose a lot of time in the calms over the Sunda Strait”, explains Soldini. “We are evaluating the possibility of a departure between 6 pm on Wednesday 17 and 6 am on Thursday 18 (UTC time) this week. For now it does not look like an ideal weather window but according to the latest forecasts, we should find more favorable conditions to overcome the first part of the route up to the Sunda Strait.”

Maserati Multi70 remains moored at the dock of the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club where the crew is still waiting for the piece to be replaced on the mast which should arrived tomorrow.

[Photoboy]

Maserati Jumps To Early Advantage In Tea Route Record Attempt




The trimaran Maserati Multi70 left Hong Kong crossing the starting line positioned between the Tai Long Pai and Nga Ying Pal lights, at the exit of the Tathoong canal, at 10: 43′ 23” UTC (18:43 in China, 11:43 in Italy).

To beat the record Giovanni Soldini and the crew of the trimaran – Guido Broggi, Oliver Herrera Perez, Alex Pella and Sébastien Audigane – have to complete the course and cross the finish line under the Queen Elizabeth II bridge over the Thames before the 1st of March at 8: 9′ 47” UTC.




Along the 13,000 miles course (about 24,000 kilometers) following the shortest orthododromic route passing by the Cape of Good Hope, the Hong Kong-London route begins with a run down the South China Sea. “The weather situation has been very unstable in these last days”, explains Pierre Lasnier, the routeur who will follow the record on land. “According to the latest models, it’s getting clearer. Starting today, Maserati Multi70 is almost certain to find an average wind of NE between 17 and 18 knots of speed for the next three days, enough to get down to 5°N, under the southern point of Vietnam. But, they will not be able to sail on the direct route, they will have to make several gybes downwind to go towards South.”

“Finally we are off “, says Giovanni Soldini. “It was a tough decision to make because the weather situation is not ideal but we do not see any other useful windows in the coming days. From the technical point of view, at the moment at the Equator there is a bubble with no wind that we will have to cross. We hope that the conditions change once we’ll get there and be kind to us. During the first days we will do our best to stay in deep water, but there is more wind near the vietnamese coasts, so we will try to find compromises between the need to go fast and the attention to pay at the myriad of networks and boats of local fishermen who do not even have navigation lights. The boat is ready, we are motivated and we will always try to give our best. ”

The same enthusiasm and desire to navigate in the words of the Spanish Alex Pella: “We are all super happy and motivated, the stand-by periods are always complicated and stressful, especially in Hong Kong, far from home. Now we’re going to do our best!”




TRACKER

[Flat Stanley]

Good luck to the Maserati crew!

[Photoboy]

Lentils, Pigs Feet and a 300 NM Advance On Maserati Menu!





First day of sailing with good weather conditions, the crew’s mood is very high.

After a tack towards Vietnam to take advantage of the wind’s acceleration near the coast, Maserati Multi70 is back at port tack going South.

30 hours after the start, Giovanni Soldini explains from aboard the weather conditions that the trimaran will encounter in the next days.

“The ships and fishing boats’ traffic is always very intense, in a few hours we should gybe again to get more Ovest. The wind gets faster near Vietnam’s coasts but there are high risks for the navigation over there. We will have to compromise and try to keep a fair distance from the coast in order to avoid the majority of the local shipping boats.”

“Tomorrow the wind should be stable around 15/20 knots turning more East, parallel to the coast, then at the end of the day it should get slower. We are expecting a high pressure bubble at 5° North and 107° East for the 21st, that passage will be crucial in order to understand when and how we will reach the Sunda Strait. The 21st and the 22nd will be difficult days. We will have to enjoy this nice wind pushing us fast towards South for now!”

“Tonight we will have a nice dinner with lentils and pig’s trotter, non very equatorial but effective.”





TRACKER

[Cassidy]

Mmmmmmm pigs feet.

[Photoboy]

Squeezing Past Sumatra

Giovanni Soldini and Maserati Multi70‘s Team are less than 300 nautical miles away from the Sunda Strait. After four days, they sailed 1635 nm at an average speed of 18,9 knots and gained a 468 miles lead over the previous record.



Maserati Multi70 is now located between the islands of Borneo to the West and Sumatra to the East.

Giovanni Soldini and Maserati Multi70‘s crew crossed the Equator this morning at 3:13 am UTC. Then, in order to stay in the pressure, we had to keep on jibing towards the Sunda Strait where we should arrive in about 15 hours (around 22 UTC on January 22nd)” explains Giovanni Soldini. “Then, after the Strait, we will have to see how we will manage to catch the South East trade winds in the Indian Ocean.”



TRACKER

Alex Pella explains: “Navigation aboard Maserati Multi70 is going on in this incredible sea of China. It is a real slalom between islands, reefs, atolls, merchant ships and fishing vessels not always well marked. It’s fun from the point of view of pure navigation but it’s not always easy. We have still two difficult passages to do before entering the Indian Ocean. We crossed the Equator last night and we are going on with super conditions, stable wind from the north, flat sea and summer heat.”

After three days of sailing Maserati Multi70 is about 580 miles from the Sunda Strait, the gate between Java and Sumatra to get into the Indian Ocean. Sailing across the South China Sea and the Java Sea is like a slalom between coral islands in a zone where nautical traffic is quite intense. Moreover, in this part of the route there’s the difficult crossing of the Equator, where the weather conditions are very unstable.

“We are in an area where the wind is weak” says Giovanni Soldini, “the wind goes from 7 to 9 knots from 30° turning to North: we only have to wait for the right moment to gybe and run away towards South-West. The high pressure zone is East of us, we have to enter in it port tack, look for the wind rotation to North and then get out starboard tack.”

[Photoboy]

Trucking Across The India Ocean




Tracker


After crossing the Sunda Strait, Maserati Multi70 was welcomed in the Indian Ocean by a powerful NW wind, that the trimaran took crosswind, on starboard. The crew sailed the first 450 miles in the ocean like that, slightly below the direct route to South Africa. Now the trimaran is about to cross the heart of a low pressure zone with light winds – this is the last obstacle before reaching the SE trade winds zone.

Reporting Sebastién Audigane’s words: “We are again under gennaker after a wet and quite fast night. Some birds fly over our head. They are a kind of northern gannet, similar to albatrosses. They play with Maserati Multi70 in front of the forestay, then just above the water surface, in front of the bow or in pairs crossing diagonally in front of us. In few words, the trimaran is the attraction of the day for the Indian’s local population.

Giovanni Soldini adds: “Since this morning we are crossing a lot of tropical squalls, so we took the opportunity to do some cleaning on board. We are satisfied.”

We are on the fifth day on Maserati Multi70, we have passed the Straits of the Sonda

On board the Maserati Multi70 you eat very well! Here is the first typical recipe

[Rainier]

I really, really, really don't get the point to this one. What a boring record to set. Big egos and big toys I guess....

[Dutch Rudder]

Membership in the Record Obscura Club?

[Photoboy]

Day 7. After a week of sailing and 2570 miles traveled, the lead on the previous record rises to 741 miles.

For Giovanni Soldini and the crew of Maserati Multi70 the second week of the record between Hong Kong and London begins in the Indian Ocean, under the 15th parallel South.

At this morning ranking, 7:06 UTC, the trimaran Maserati Multi70 recorded average speeds around 30 knots and a distance of 4,000 miles from Good Hope, next buoy on the Hong Kong to London route.

“The first week went very well”, says Giovanni Soldini, “we have found a good harmony on board. We sailed well and we also had Neptune on our side. We entered the trade winds last night around 18 UTC and we immediately accelerated. We spent the last day between brutal gales and gennaker maneuvers, but we are happy because we are going fast and I think that in the coming days we can make a long way.”





http://maserati.soldini.it/cartography/