Maserati crosses the finish line at San Salvador at h 10 59′ 10” GMT Giovanni Soldini and his team establish an excellent time reference for the Cadiz-San Salvador record
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 rise. 31,000 individual users to date have visited the new site
.61,000 followers of Giovanni Soldini on Twitter, 11,000 fans of Soldini on Facebook.
The record attempt can be followed, almost live, on Giovanni Soldini and Maserati’s new website (
). The site contains news, videos and photos of life on board, and provides continuous monitoring of the marine weather conditions, as well as online tracking to check, in real time, the position and speed of Maserati. Continuous updates are also available on the Facebook (Giovanni Soldini’s official page) and Twitter (@giovannisoldini; @borisherrmann; @BradVanLiew) social networking sites.
The challenge is being sponsored by Maserati, as main partner and inspiration for the boat’s name, by the Swiss bank BSI (Generali Group) and by Generali itself, as co-sponsor.
MASERATI
Maserati’s support and participation in this major Italian challenge in sport and technology confirms the company’s role as a world ambassador for that level of excellence for which Italy is universally known. Maserati gives zealous expression to that excellence every day in 65 countries worldwide, through successful high-quality cars like the Quattroporte, GranTurismo and GranCabrio. The performance of Maserati cars on the road matches that of Giovanni Soldini and Maserati on water.
BSI and Generali BSI is one of Switzerland’s oldest banks and specialises in private wealth management through top-flight global management. BSI is a fully controlled member of the Generali Group, and fields a presence on all major international financial markets, especially in Europe, Asia and Latin America. Generali is one of the world’s largest international insurance groups with offices in over 60 countries. The group boasts a robust footprint in Europe, EEC member states, Asia and Latin America, serving over 70 million customers. The Generali Group is a European leader in life insurance with assets of over 400 billion euros.
Official suppliers for the attempt include Vodafone Italia, responsible for providing telecommunication services and developing the official website, the marine clothing brandMurphy&Nye, who have supplied the clothing for the entire Maserati team, official time keeper Bulgari, and Boero Bartolomeo S.p.A., producers of the special paints and enamels used on the hull.
Maserati is also sponsored by Eataly, suppliers to the boat’s galley, Beta Utensili, who have provided all the professional tools, Corderia Lancelin, supplier of the special ropes and cables, FPT Industrial for technical assistance with the engines, Jeppesen for the cartography, B&G Navico for technical assistance with on-board instrumentation, Cantiere Picchiotti of La Spezia, home of Maserati on dry land, and the Port of La Spezia, home of Maserati when at sea.
