The second week of sailing of Maserati Multi70 ends at 800 miles from Cape of Good Hope with a 564 miles advantage on the roadmap of the record to beat.
Credit : Maserati Multi70
Skipper Giovanni Soldini and the other crew members (Guido Broggi, Sébastien Audigane, Oliver Herrera Perez and Alex Pella) are getting ready to face the last difficulty in this portion of the route: the crossing of a cold front associated with a deep depression positioned in the Roaring Forties, further south of the current position of Maserati Multi70. “Now we are passing through a hill of high pressure that has slowed us down. We're sailing on port side with light winds from the east, heading to 240. As soon as the wind will turn NE we will jibe”, explains Giovanni Soldini contacted by phone this morning. “We'll try to get out of this front quickly. This is why it is important to position yourself fairly to the south, in order to leave the front with the best angle to head for South Africa.”
“The problem with these fronts is that the wind can change in only ten minutes even with a 180 degrees rotation”, continues Soldini. “In this case, we are expecting winds from the North with gusts around 30/35 knots before the front then, once passed, it will blow from the South. But for many hours we will have the old swell from the North with the wind from the South, so it will be important to measure the speed to avoid damage.”
At the end of the second week of navigation on the route of the record between Hong Kong and London, Maserati Multi70 has covered 5,756 of the 13,000 miles of the theoretical route (18.1 knots of average speed). In fact, on the ground, it covered a distance of 6,364 miles at 20 knots of average speed. During this second week in the Indian Ocean, between the seventh and eighth days, the best daily distance was recorded with 644 miles in 24 hours. There are still 6,944 miles to London.
Left Hong Kong last January 18th, 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 meters trimaran Maserati Multi 70 must cut the finish line under the Queen Elizabeth II bridge over the River Thames before 1 March.
From Negri Firman
