21 days, 19 hours, 32 minutes and 54 seconds is the outstanding time it took Maserati to cover the Tea Clipper Trade Route; 7000 miles sailed by Soldini and his crew between San Francisco and Shanghai.
“We are satisfied,” declared Soldini just after crossing the finish line at Shanghai on the 31st of May at 5:25:44 AM of the 1st of June local time. “We scored an excellent new time reference, hard to beat; we hope that these 7,000 miles will quickly become a classic record, like the New York-San Francisco.”
This was the enthusiastic declaration by Giovanni Soldini right after the successful end of a race which saw the crew of the Maserati cast off from San Francisco at 1:52:50 GMT (3:52:50 Italian time) on the night of May 10and then sprint 7392 real nautical miles (great circle distance: 5334 nautical miles) at an average speed of 14,1 knots to the finish.
“As always, Maserati proved what an excellent craft she is and the crew made an efficient and very tightknit team. Twenty-one days from San Francisco to Shanghai is a very impressive time. We will be requesting that the World Sailing Speed Record certify it. Conditions were good almost the entire way. The first part of the route was very fast: six days to Hawaii is an impressive pace. Then we had a good old gallop through the Trade Winds. The final section, as we neared China, was the trickiest as winds were very light, but we were expecting that”.
Maserati, as the yacht’s title sponsor, is thankful to Giovanni Soldini and his international crew of eight: Italians Guido Broggi, Andrea Fantini, Francesco Malingri and Marco Spertini; German Boris Herrmann; Chinese sailor Jianghe “Tiger” Teng; Spaniard Oliver Herrera Perez; and Swede Andreas Axelsson.
The VOR70 Maserati’s next event is in Australia where, in late December, she’ll take part in the Rolex Sydney – Hobart Yacht Race, one of the world’s most famous and challenging sailing events.
