Maserati Multi 70 and Giovanni Soldini in the Rolex Fastnet Race

07/08/2021

49 Rolex Fastnet Race

After a record spring for Maserati Multi 70 (Plymouth – La Rochelle, 12 hours, 15 minutes, 21 seconds; Cowes – Dinard, 4 hours, 30 minutes, 45 seconds; original Fastnet course: 23 hours, 51 minutes, 16 seconds) , the Italian team returns to the English Channel, ready for the new challenge.

Since 1925, the Rolex Fastnet Race has taken place every two years and is one of the most famous offshore races in the world. Its route includes passages under the coast and offshore, in an area where the variables involved are many, between intense winds and changing currents.

Competing ships will staggered from Cowes on the Isle of Wight in southern England and head west. Leaving the Solent via the Needles canal, they will have to pass Land’s End and cross the Celtic Sea to Fastnet, the rock off the coast of Ireland from which the race takes its name. Once the lap, the competitors will return to the finish line, opposite Cherbourg, on the north coast of France.

Organized by the Royal Ocean Racing Club, the historic 695-mile regatta will begin in Cowes, UK on Sunday 8th August at 11am.

There are 453 entries in this edition of the regatta, divided into 13 classes: the number of competitors has almost doubled since the previous edition, confirming the Rolex Fastnet Race as the offshore regatta with the most participants in the world.

The Maserati Multi 70 will have to compete with 15 other multihulls, including Jason Carroll’s American MOD 70 Argo, already faced in numerous challenges in recent years (RORC Caribbean 600, CA 500 and Transpacific Yacht Race).

Among the competing multihulls are also three 105 ‘maxi trimarans, the French Ultim 32/23 Actual by Yves Le Blevec, Sodebo Ultim 3 by Thomas Coville and Maxi Edmond De Rothschild by Cyril Dardashti, which in 2019 set the record for multihulls in the regatta (1 day, 4 hours, 2 minutes and 26 seconds). Also present will be the Ultim’emotion 2 maxi trimaran by Antoine Rabaste, already gathered at the RORC Caribbean 600 in 2020. The only other Italian participant alongside the Maserati Multi 70 will be Prysmian Group, the IMOCA 60 by Giancarlo Pedote.