Maserati Update

Giovanni Soldini will be paying a visit to San Francisco Bay before March 1 — via the most difficult route. He and an international crew of eight men left New York on New Year’s Eve day aboard the VOR 70 Maserati on a nonstop, 13,000-mile sprint that will take them south to Cape Horn, then north to the Golden Gate. Their goal is to break the Clipper Challenge Cup record of 57d, 3h, 2m, set in 1998 by Yves Parlier and his crew aboard Aquitaine Innovations. Previous to a flurry of new records and failed attempts between the mid-’80s and late ‘90s, the record set by the famous three-master Flying Cloud (89d, 8h) in 1854 stood for more than 130 years.

So far, Soldini’s record attempt appears to be going well, with Maserati now approaching the Equator. The sole American on Soldini’s team, Ryan Breymaier, reported this morning: “So we blasted straight through the tradewinds in good time. It was not your typical downwind slide like in the ARC brochure; more of a firehose reach as we crossed at a 90 degree angle.
“As I write this, we are about 160 miles from the equator. We just sailed directly out of perfect 20-knot trades into a 25-knot squall with a 40-degree forward windshift. Boris [Herrmann] says 'Oh s**t, welcome to the doldrums.' And he was right. The wind now fluctuates between 9 and 14, but at least we have one thing going for us: there is still wind.”

Breymaier went on to report that GRIB files currently show no wind holes ahead, so they may squeak through the equatorial doldrums without coming to a grinding stop. And the long-term forecast looks favorable also. “It’s looking good though, with no major stoppages before the Falklands, just a super wet boat.”