Soldini starts again in South Africa. Here is Maserati’s calendar

The 2014 sports program of Giovanni Soldini and the VOR70 Maserati was presented at the Yacht Club de Monaco. Kicking off on January 4, 2014 is the Cape2Rio, a crewed race from Cape Town to Rio de Janeiro. On board Pierre Casiraghi in the role of tailer.

The Maserati team, captained by Giovanni Soldini, is ready to set out again for a new challenge in the oceans. After setting the record in the Golden Route in 2013 (the difficult New York-San Francisco leg covered in 47 days and 42 minutes), the Italian navigator will tackle two important oceanic competitions in 2014 with his crew-and again aboard the Maserati VOR70.

THE CAPE2RIO
The first event is January 4, 2014 with the 14th Cape2Rio, the longest race between two continents in the southern hemisphere: 3,300 nautical miles between Table Bay, Cape Town, South Africa, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Established in 1971 to encourage South African skippers to take on ocean crossings, and organized by the Royal Cape Yacht Club, the Cape2Rio immediately attracted great international interest in part because of its historical appeal, as it retraces the routes of Portuguese navigators such as Pedro Cabral, who 500 years ago, believing he was arriving in the Indies, discovered Brazil by accident. Over the years the Cape2Rio has counted among its participants such navigators as Eric Tabarly and Robin Knox-Johnston.

Soldini speaks, watch the video

BLUE BLOOD ON MASERATI
Aboard Maserati, along with Soldini, is a well-oiled international team of nine: Italians Guido Broggi, Corrado Rossignoli and Michele Sighel; German Boris Herrmann; Spaniard Carlos Hernandez; Frenchmen Gwen Riou and Jacques Vincent; Dane Martin Kirketerp Ibsen; and for the first time, Monegasque Pierre Casiraghi, who will carry the colors of the Yacht Club de Monaco. “I have dreamed of participating in this historic regatta since I was a boy,” declares Giovanni Soldini, “The crew is ready and will be very fierce. We also have two new entries: the French Jacques Vincent and the Danish Martin Kirketerp Ibsen.” “It is a great honor to participate in this regatta, which is a real challenge for me,” says Pierre Casiraghi, “I have never raced with such a high level crew but I feel ready for Cape2Rio.

SOLDINI TRIES AGAIN IN MAY
From May 2014 Giovanni Soldini and the Maserati team will be in New York on standby, waiting for the right weather window to retry the ambitious and challenging North Atlantic speed record from New York to Lizard Point. At present the monohull record is held by Robert Miller’s Mari-Cha IV, a 140-foot maxi schooner (twice the size of Maserati) that in 2003 covered the 2,925 nautical miles in 6 days, 17 hours, 52 minutes, 39 seconds, at an average of 18.5 knots. The record has already been attempted by Soldini and co. with Maserati in 2012. – See more at: https://www.giornaledellavela.com/content/html/index.php?s=Soldini_riparte_dal_Sudafrica_Ecco_ilE_stato_presentato_il_programma_sportivo_2014_di_Giovanni_Soldini_e_del&page=nodeDetail&idRecord=20449#sthash.dlDLrjpn.dpuf