Soldini flies foils, makes a “bang” and loses his rudder. Meanwhile, in the Ocean…

On the other hand, Giovanni Soldini had told us very clearly, “We have to learn how to fly Maserati, at those speeds you bump a submerged object and you are of the cat.” Foils must be managed; disaster is always around the corner.

ONE BANG AND GOODBYE HELM
And indeed, on the night of October 16, while transferring from La Spezia, 150 miles from Malta (where Soldini and co. were expected to compete in the Rolex Middle Sea Race, the first major test for the flying trimaran), the fil-equipped Italian Multi70 suffered a high-speed collision with an unidentified floating object that destroyed the starboard rudder, the handling tubes and one of the sectors attached to the boom. Despite the severity of the breakdown suffered, the crew of Maserati Multi70 managed to sail under their own power and safely into the Maltese harbor.

THE DYNAMICS OF THE ACCIDENT
This is how Giovanni Soldini recounts the dynamics of the accident: “We were sailing with 22 knots on the slack southwest of Sicily at 30 knots of speed, we heard a sharp bang and the rudder was gone. We don’t know what we hit. The bushings, (the bearings inside which the rudders rotate, ed.) were uprooted. We lost everything: rudder, box and sector. Unfortunately, collisions like that can happen,” Soldini continued. “Maserati Multi70’s new trim certainly exposes us more, with rudders and wing foils, the probability of impact increases because they have a larger wetted surface area than normal ones.”

LIKE A BOLTING HORSE

We’ll see if Maserati can line up on the starting line of the Middle Sea, which begins Oct. 22. While fixable, the damage remains penal for this first regatta. Soldini explains, “Along with the wing rudder, we will also have to replace the wing foil, which cannot be used alone, otherwise the boat will wheel up like a runaway horse. Therefore, on Maserati Multi70 we will fit all the right side steering of the ‘old’ MOD70 trim, not flying. It is a forced choice; a wing rudder like ours is not rebuilt in a few days, and it will take time to rebuild it.”

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MEANWHILE ON MONOHULLS…
Meanwhile, moving on to monohulls, it seems that foils are bringing great satisfaction to the IMOCA 60s just days before the start of the Vendée Globe, the non-stop solo round-the-world race (scheduled to start Nov. 6 from Les Sables d’Olone). At least judging from the video below, which depicts the “semi-flying” performances of Armel Le Cleac’h and Banque Populaire VIII. These state-of-the-art hulls, while not rising completely out of the water, take advantage of DSS foils for dramatically reduced friction. Whether they will really be reliable in the ocean remains to be seen; we are a bit skeptical given the disaster at the last Transat Jacques Vabre…

SEE HOW BANQUE POPULAIRE VIII SPINS WITH FOILS