An Italian-Spanish crew to race with Giovanni Soldini on Maserati Multi70 for the Transpac Race

• The team is training in Los Angeles ahead of the multihull start on July 6 

Modena 4 July 2017 - A skilled and experienced crew of Italian and Spanish sailors will race alongside renowned Italian offshore yachtsman Giovanni Soldini on the Maserati Multi70 trimaran in the Transpacific Yacht Race – a 2,225-mile open ocean race from Los Angeles to Honolulu, Hawaii. 

Six sailors will join Soldini aboard the Italian trimaran. Spaniards Carlos Hernandez and Oliver Herrera, and Italians Guido Broggi, Vittorio Bissaro, Francesco Malingri, will be joined by Italian industrialist John Elkann, who returns to the Maserati Multi70 crew. 

“It takes a strong crew to race a boat like ours in a tough race like the Transpac,” Soldini said. “I’m confident we have the right people on board and we will do our best, as always”.

In a yacht racing career spanning 25 years Giovanni Soldini has racked up victories in many of the world’s most prestigious ocean races, including the Around Alone, Transat Jacques Vabre, OSTAR, and Quebec to Saint-Malo races. 

Racing aboard the Maserati VOR70 monohull, he also set new reference times for the Cadiz to San Salvador route (2012), the New York to San Francisco Gold Route course, and the San Francisco to Shanghai Tea Clipper Route. 

Guido Broggi has worked with Soldini since 1998, as both an on-shore ‘préparateur’ and a crew member on almost all of Soldini’s fully-crewed campaigns. An expert in high-performance yacht rigging, as the Maserati Multi70 boat captain, Broggi is responsible for keeping the boat’s complex systems working smoothly.

After a successful first outing in the RORC 600 Race earlier in the year, Italian multihull virtuoso Vittorio Bissaro returns to the Maserati Multi70 crew for the Transpac. As well as multiple multihull national and European championship titles, Bissaro finished fifth at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in the Nacra 17 catamaran class. Aside from his obvious sailing prowess, a degree in aerospace engineering gives him a unique perspective on how to get the best out of Maserati Multi70’s hydrofoils and towering sail plan. 

Spaniards Oliver Herrera and Carlos Hernandez are both in-demand sailors on the professional yacht racing circuit. A regular on the winner’s podium at top flight regattas around the Mediterranean, Herrera raced as bowman on board the Maserati VOR70 monohull and fulfils the same role on the Maserati Multi70 trimaran. Hernandez also raced with Soldini aboard the Maserati VOR70 and was part of the Spanish MAPFRE crew in the 2014-15 Volvo Ocean Race around the world. 

As well as his regular sailing duties, Francesco Malingri is also the team’s longstanding media man. Malingri has sailed around the world twice – the first time at the age of 13 with his family – and has raced in most of the world’s high profile yacht races. 

A keen yachtsman, John Elkann is chairman of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, the group which owns the Maserati organisation. Elkann has sailed extensively with Soldini since 2009 and was on board the Maserati VOR70 for the 2012 Miami to New York record attempt, the 2013 Transpac Race and the 2015 RORC Caribbean 600 race. 

The crew recently arrived in Los Angeles aboard the Maserati Multi70 trimaran and this week will train on the water and make final preparations to the boat ahead of the Transpac multihull start on July 6.

The challenge is supported by Maserati which, as main sponsor, gives the boat her name, while UnipolSai Assicurazioni is sponsor. 

The official suppliers to the challenge are Ermenegildo Zegna for clothing and Boero Bartolomeo S.p.A. for hull enamels and paints. 

Ends

MASERATI

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