Maserati Sailing Team Begins Record Run from Miami to New York

[Ocean Racing]

For Immediate Release

Maserati Sailing Team Begins Record Run from Miami to New York

International crew of decorated sailors join forces to set new pace for speed and performance on the Atlantic

Miami, FL (March 22, 2012) – Italian, German, Spanish and American sailors, largely known for their independent offshore sailing expeditions, have come together in a quest to set a new pace for speed on the water under sail. The impressive collection of globetrotting extreme sailors collectively have more than one million miles of experience offshore. Italian Giovanni Soldini leads the rogue crew of eight, including German Boris Hermann as Navigator, and American Brad Van Liew and Spaniard David Vera as Watch Leaders. They set out today from Miami, Florida aboard the VOR70 Maserati to establish the official monohull sailing record from Miami to New York City.

“The wind directions should offer us nice downwind sailing,” said Navigator Boris Hermann. “The conditions are not perfect, but we hope to play the local shifts, the Gulf Stream and other weather details on the route.”

American Brad Van Liew added, “We had a fantastic hospitality event hosted by Maserati North America this week and now the crew is fired up and anxious to get back to the mission at hand: beating and setting records. The boat and crew are ready to get back up to full speed.”

This ambitious race against time is one of several records that Giovanni Soldini and his international crew aboard Maserati will attempt in the months ahead.

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The Maserati team can be followed live on Giovanni Soldini and Maserati’s website (www.maserati.soldini.it). The site contains news, videos and photos of the crew life on board, and provides continuous monitoring of the marine weather conditions, as well as online tracking to check the position and speed of Maserati in real time. Continuous updates are also available on Facebook (through Giovanni Soldini's official page) and Twitter (@giovannisoldini, @borisherrmann, @bradvanliew).

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.

Suppliers for the attempt include Vodafone Italia, responsible for providing telecommunication services and developing the official website, the marine clothing brand Murphy&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.

For further information:
info@oceanracing.org

[Ocean Racing]

Aboard Maserati Giovanni writes: "After an amazing departure with crosswind from Miami, for a couple of hours we passed through a windless zone where several clouds disturbed the trade winds. In the evening the wind rose and we sailed at a 20 knots speed for at least 6 hours. We are now after the Gulfstream that can give us 2 extra knots of speed northwards. Maserati ran all the night with regular crew shifts. John took mine with Gabriele so that I could focus on the weather conditions and Gulf current monitoring. The wind is slowly turning south-eastwards, as consequence we will have to change sails in a while. The next 24 hours are crucial: we need to keep a good speed northwards in order to place ourselves in the right position to face the depression arriving on Saturday."

[Ocean Racing]

More from Giovanni: “Today the wind is going down - the situation will be tough till this evening, maybe even for the night. Warm day, haze and a few storms. We are continuously working the sheets and on the winches and we are trying to gain miles going north. Luckily there is a favorable stream. At the moment we are gaining on the route so everything is ok. We need to keep an eye on the depression that is developing north of Cape Hatteras.”

[Ocean Racing]

This morning at 11.50 am GMT (7.50 am local time, 1.50 pm Italian time) Maserati reached the Ambrose light station in New York Bay, the destination point of the Miami – New York record attempt.

Giovanni and his team decided non to ratify the Miami – New York record with the World Sailing Speed Record Council, even if there still is not a time reference for monohulls. This is because of the adverse weather conditions (tropical storms, sudden high wind blasts, windless zones) that Maserati encountered during the route.

“We have decided not to ask for a ratification of the Miami – New York record attempt, even if a time reference for monohulls does not exist. Our result turned out to be below our expectations, and it does not match with the performance of a boat as fast as Maserati.

When we set sail for the record attempt we knew that the weather conditions were not ideal, but we did not expect them to be so adverse. With Maserati we can do much better than this. In the next days we will wait for the right moment to attempt the New York – Cape Lizard (UK) speed record and, weather permitting, we will try again the 24 hour speed record. It is going to be challenging but we can make it.”

Giovanni and his team on board of Maserati set sail from Miami on March 22 at 6, 28′, 16” pm GMT (2, 28′ 16” local time, 7, 28′ 16” pm Italian time).

[Ocean Racing]

Conditions report from yesterday prior to NY arrival today:

Difficult hours aboard Maserati. Giovanni and team are only 190 miles away from New York but they have been surrounded by a windless and full of storms warm front. Aboard the team is fighting for each mile and this situation is going to last for several hours.

Giovanni said, “We only have 190 miles to go but it seems that this time Aeolus is against us. Yesterday, we faced an endless number of tropical storms that alternated torrential rain with sudden blasts of wind or windless zones.

These are unpredictable tropical creatures that like hot water and suddenly develop and disappear on the Gulfstream. Yesterday, we spent 12 awful hours in this way. Then, after passing Cape Hatters, the situation finally changed and we sailed at 25 knots for a while.

We thought we had ended with windless zones but we were wrong. We got delayed and we met the low pressure we hoped to avoid. The warm front surrounded us again and we ended windless. The low pressure centre moved eastwards faster than we thought and we are now paying our delay.

The route is blocked and we have to fight to gain each mile in order to get to the other side of the low pressure.”