AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — Maserati Multi 70 is back in the Northern Hemisphere after crossing the equator at longitude 5°W today at 10:28 UTC after 21 days, 13 hours and 15 minutes. It’s an important moment for the skipper Giovanni Soldini and the other four crew members (Guido Broggi, Sébastien Audigane, Oliver Herrera Perez and Alex Pella) as Soldini explains: “We’ve passed the Equator. To get there after only 21 days from Hong Kong and six days from Cape of Good Hope is a pretty good time. We are happy, our eastern option, I mean our choice to navigate near the African coast, has paid off. We have a good wind and we maintain good speeds. Now we are thinking about the Northern Hemisphere, it is the last part of the course; it is also the most difficult because we will arrive in winter. We must get ready.”
From its current position, Maserati Multi 70 will continue its route towards the NW continuing along the coasts of West Africa before entering the north-eastern trade winds that look stable in strength and direction starting from latitude 10°N.
After that, the crew will decide the route up to Europe and it will depend on the location of the Azores high and the trajectories of the winter depressions that sweep the North Atlantic at those latitudes.
At 11:20 UTC rankings, the advantage of Maserati Multi 70 on the record holder’s roadmap is 2,009 miles, only 3,630 miles until the finish line. After three weeks and one day of navigation, Maserati Multi 70 has traveled 9,033 nm of the 13,000 miles of the theoretical route (average speed of 17.5 knots). In actuality, it has already exceeded 10,186 miles sailed at an average speed of 19.7 knots.
Leaving Hong Kong on January 18, to beat the record set in 2008 by Lionel Lemonchois on board the 100 footer maxi catamaran Gitana 13 (41 days, 21 hours and 26 minutes), the 21.20-meter trimaran Maserati Multi 70 must cut the finish line under the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge over the River Thames before the March 1.
To follow the challenge live, visit the cartography at: maserati.soldini.it/cartography/
SOURCE Maserati North America
