Soldini and Maserati ready for San Francisco-Shanghai

Giovanni Soldini and Maserati ‘s crew have been on standby in San Francisco for a few days now, ready to depart for Shanghai as soon as weather conditions are favorable.

The goal of the team led by Soldini is to set a new record on an ancient route: the Tea Route from San Francisco to Shanghai (a parallel route to the more classic London-Hong Kong), which was sailed in the 1800s for commercial purposes by the most adventurous and modern clippers of the time.

7,315 miles in the Pacific Ocean, laden with fascination and history, which saw clippers challenge each other in the mid-19th century in true speed records. The fastest was Swordfish, commanded by Charles Collins, who in 1853 completed the route in 32 days and 9 hours, averaging 225 miles per day, beating by two days the previous record that belonged to Romance of the Sea.

On this ancient route Giovanni Soldini and Maserati will attempt to set a new record, which will be officially ratified by the World Sailing Speed Record Council, the international body that certifies the best travel times of modern boats on historic clipper routes.

Aboard Maserati, in addition to Soldini, will be a crew of eight: Italians Guido Broggi, Andrea Fantini, Francesco Malingri and Marco Spertini; German Boris Herrmann; Chinese Jianghe “Tiger” Teng; Spaniard Oliver Herrera Perez; and Swede Andreas Axelsson.

This is how Giovanni Soldini describes his next challenge: “It is very fascinating to retrace the historical routes of the great navigators of the past. We did it three years ago with the Gold Route, we are trying it this year with the Tea Route.

From San Francisco to Shanghai there is no recent landmark record, but we believe Maserati will be able to set a good, hard-to-beat time, hoping of course that these 7,000 miles will become a classic record in the future, like the New York-San Francisco. For Maserati, this record attempt is also an excellent opportunity to get closer to Australia, from where the legendary Rolex Sydney-Hobart regatta will start in December.”

During regattas continuous updates with video and images from aboard and cartography with real-time positions of Maserati at www.maserati.soldini.it(<http://www.maserati.soldini.it/>) and on social networks: Facebook (Giovanni Soldini Official Page, more than 40,000 friends), Twitter @giovannisoldini (more than 127,000 followers).