Maserati crossed the finish line at San Salvador this morning at h 10 59′ 10” GMT.
Giovanni Soldini and his crew took 10 days, 23 hours, 9 minutes and 2 seconds to travel the 3884 miles of the orthodromic route which links Cadiz to San Salvador, thus establishing an excellent time reference – the first – for the monohull category.
Having set sail from Cadiz on 2 February at h 11 50′ 08” GMT, they travelled 4632 real miles at an average speed of 17.6 knots.
“I’m extremely pleased,” declared Soldini immediately after crossing the finish line. “We’ve established an excellent time reference, which will be very difficult to beat. The only fly in the ointment was the last night, which was really rough. We had a technical problem with the hydraulic system for the keel, which doesn’t move any more. We were all awake, and sailed with a fixed, central keel, but obviously it slowed us down. In any case, we couldn’t have hoped for a better result. We were spot on with all our choices regarding the weather, and I’m really pleased with how the boat and the crew performed.”
The VOR 70 Maserati will carry on, without stopping, to Charleston, South Carolina, where it will be completely overhauled.
After the work, Giovanni Soldini and his team will attempt to beat the 24-hour speed record.
The number of Maserati challenge enthusiasts continues to swell. 31,000 individual users to date have visited the new site http://maserati.soldini.it/.
