Maserati Sailing Team Begins Record Run from Miami to New York

[riksrock]

They do it.

[Ocean Racing]

More info here: http://maserati.soldini.it/?lang=en and here: http://www.oceanracing.org/

For Immediate Release

Giovanni Soldini and Maserati Sailing Team Are Ready For Challenge in the North Atlantic Ocean

Preparations are underway to begin the historic New York - England record attempt overnight

New York (May 8, 2012) - After a one month long stand-by, Maserati is likely to set sail between 10:00 p.m. this evening and 3:00 a.m. tomorrow morning local time from the North Cove Marina in New York City. The goal is for Giovanni Soldini and his international team is to break the monohull sailing record from the Ambrose Lighthouse in New York to Lizard Point off the south west coast of England.

They are challenging a record set in 2003 by Robert Miller's monohull Mari Cha IV - 6 days, 17 hours, 52 minutes and 39 seconds. The 140-foot Mari Cha IV covered the 2,925 miles of the route at an average speed of 18.5 knots with 24 crew on board. Maserati, measuring 70-feet and with 8 crew on board is facing the daunting task of beating the record time of a racing yacht twice as large with three times the manpower. The extensive offshore experience on board Maserati might trump the larger yacht and team if the weather cooperates.

"The low pressure approaching finally seems to be the right one," explains Giovanni Soldini. "This evening we will make the final decision, but I hope that the last weather forecasts will be confirmed. At the start we are expecting 25 - 30 knots of southerly winds and some thunderstorms. We will be departing just ahead of a cold front that will be coming through the New York area tomorrow morning."

American crew member Brad Van Liew adds, "We are going to grab onto the eastern side of the front, and ride it as far as we can across the North Atlantic. The three major challenges will be the unpredictable thunderstorms out of New York, the large area of icebergs south and east of Nova Scotia with strong winds and a water temperature of 2.4 degrees Celsius, and another area of uncertain weather near the finish line."

There have been some changes in Maserati's crew: French sailors Sebastien Audigane and Ronan Le Goff, Spanish Javier de la Plaza and British Tom Gall have joined the crew to replace some members of the team that are taking part in regattas in the Mediterranean. On board Maserati with the skipper Giovanni Soldini, are watch leader Brad Van Liew, Javier de la Plaza (helm, pit), Sebastien Audigane (helm, trimmer) Ronan Le Goff (helm, bowman), Guido Broggi (boat captain), Corrado Rossignoli (bowman), and Tom Gall (second bowman).

The record attempt can be followed live on Giovanni Soldini and Maserati's website (www.maserati.soldini.it). The site contains news, videos and photos of the lifestyle of crew members 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 and Brad Van Liew @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 additional information contact:
info@oceanracing.org

[Ocean Racing]

New York – Cape Lizard: Maserati is off!
09 May 2012

This morning at 7.20 GMT (9.20 Italian time, 3.20 local time) Maserati cut the starting line in front of the Ambrose Lighthouse in New York bay. The goal for Giovanni Soldini and his team is to reach Cape Lizard (UK) within 6 days, 17 hours, 52 minutes, 39 seconds, reference time set by Mari Cha IV.

http://www.facebook.com/TeamLazarus

http://maserati.soldini.it/?lang=en

[Ocean Racing]

22kts right now

[Ocean Racing]

10 May 2012

Update from Maserati:

Well this is definitely not a slam dunk of a situation but I guess this is one of sailings most prestigious records and we are trying to beat a very fast pace set by Mari Cha IV. Here is the current situation. Firstly, we have embraced a much different approach from a weather strategy point of view. Mari Cha left New York behind a cold front on NW winds that carried them much of the way to England before they had to tack on a high pressure area for the last third of the attempt. This meant that they were on a fast Port reach until tacking to starboard and then allowing the wind to free them back to a starboard reach for the final approach to England. The opportunity that presented itself to us is the opposite. We left New York ahead of and arriving cold front on Southerly winds that should carry us much of the way and then we will need to Gybe onto port gybe and hook into a low to the north which will push us to the finish. Both theories work well but we need the wind to stay steady and it has been a bit lighter than forecast for the first number of hours of the voyage.

The other point of significance is that we are doing our attempt in the spring instead of the fall which means spring icebergs South and East of Newfoundland. I will talk more about icebergs in tomorrows blog as that will definitely be on the front of our brains for the following day. Today however is all about trying to stay in the best wind strength possible as the forecast 22 kts has been elusive and we are currently in wonderful tight reaching conditions of 17 kts. Normally lovely, but not the crazy record breaking conditions we need. So fingers crossed for the big noisy show that Maserati is so gifted at.

Life onboard is getting chilly and is wet, but nothing like when we get to sail through the north atlantic cocktail in a couple of days. I cant decide if that cocktail should be served with crushed or full size ice cubes but neither sounds very good to me at the moment and I happen to know that a mixture is on order.

Ciao for now from Brad and the Maserati Boys!