Soldini: I flew the new trimaran. Our interview

Giovanni Soldini’s experience aboard trimarans had ended in 2005, when he scuffed with the Orma 60 Tim at the Jacques Vabre. Now he is resuming with multihulls after 11 years, aboard Maserati (the former MOD 70 Edmond de Rothschild), purchased for him by John Elkann: the first “flying” oceanic trimaran, that is, able to lift itself out of the water by resting exclusively on foils and “T” rudders.

We met with Italy’s most famous sailor at the Yacht Club de Monaco, for the presentation of the boat and Maserati’s program (along with him John Elkan, Pierre Casiraghi, Guido Broggi, Francesco Malingri, Carlos Hernandez, Olivier Herrera Perrez and Francois Robert_ this is the core of the Multi 70’s future crew).

A lot has changed in eleven years, John….
Youwant to. Now I find myself aboard a trimaran equipped with foils, which are the future and present of sailing. We picked him up in Brittany, to bring him here to Monaco we traveled 2,000 miles. The first time I got up in the air, I felt a very strong emotion.

Let’s talk precisely about foil: Maserati has an experimental configuration….
Theleft foil is “traditional,” C-shaped, of the kind we have already seen aboard MOD70s. It has good stability but in terms of friction it is not the best. When sailing starboard tack, we say we are in “normal” mode. The game gets interesting on port tack: the starboard foil – made in Italy – has an “L” profile, which can provide much greater lift (vertical force) and thus lift the hull completely out of the water. There is almost no friction and the speed increases dramatically.

All easy, then! Simply use both “L” foils and…
Cabbage. The challenge lies precisely in the management of the L-shaped foil. For now, they have been tested in flat water, in controlled circuits. We want to play it in the ocean, we want to be the first to do it: we want to make ocean flying reliable. We will have to find the right balance between speed and stability. Slipping into a wave and smashing everything is a snap…. For now, of the 2,000-mile Brittany-Montecarlo transfer, we’ve done 1,500 miles on starboard tack-there are still a lot of things to figure out, improvements to make, parameters to work on (like incidence). This is a laboratory boat.

But you’re not just going to study, are you?
We will now sail a lot in the Mediterranean, including Liguria, the Balearic Islands, Sicily and the French Riviera. In September we will return to Monaco to try to establish the benchmark time for multihulls on the Monaco-Porto Cervo route. We need to record data, compare, optimize. In October we will take part in the Rolex Middle Sea Race (over 600 miles starting from Malta, circumnavigating Sicily and returning to Malta), and it will be the first important test: also because there will be other MOD 70s in the race, including Phaedo. But we will not go in spasmodic pursuit of the result; it will be a test of the boat’s reliability. Then it will be the turn of the ocean, with participation in the RORC Transatlantic on November 26 (3,000 miles from Lanzarote to Grenada).

And from there, will you try to muse in the Pacific?
Absolutely yes, the idea is to take part in Transpac.

But it is not an easy ocean, especially for a flying boat….
Yeah. It is a very dirty sea, full of floating obstacles. And since the trimaran easily sails above 30 knots, any object, even the smallest, can cause damage to the appendages. That is my only real concern (Guido Broggi, Soldini’s right-hand man, told us that coming down from Brittany Maserati crashed into two sunfish, fortunately nothing happened but still the rudder fuse blew).

For now, therefore, “fly low.”
Now of the sports result, really, we don’t care. Ours is a technological challenge. We hope to be “at capacity” after the Atlantic crossing-we will not try to fly at any cost. The important thing is to try to reduce weight and friction so that we can be faster while still maintaining a stability that allows us to navigate safely…

This foil challenge smells a little bit of America’s Cup….
Absolutelynot, we are not interested in the America’s Cup. I like sailing along, seeing only the sea around me.

And will we eventually get to see Soldini around the world, conquering the Jules Verne Trophy?
Ahahahaha (laughs heartily). That is a 140-foot superboat challenge. But we shall see.

You said that yours will be a technological challenge, but there is no shortage of opponents.
Yeah, first and foremost the MOD 70 Phaedo: we had an unkind experience with their skipper. John (Elkann, ed.) had told him before the departure of the RORC 600 (600 miles around between the Caribbean islands), “I’ll see you on arrival”: the skipper had replied, “by the time you arrive, we will already be on the plane home.” Indeed it had been, but at that time Maserati was a VOR70, a monohull. Now we can play it great! Then there are other MOD 70s such as Oman Sail and Team Concise. It will be very interesting, especially in comparative terms…. But now first we will have to learn how to “fly” at our best.

THE BOAT.
Maserati is a Multi70 equipped with foil, built in 2011 21.2 meters long and 16.8 meters wide. It fishes a maximum of 4.5 m and the mast is 29 m high. The total weight is 6.3 tons and the sail area is 310 sq. m. at white sails and 409 sq. m. at carriers. The top speed reached by the trimaran, for now, is 43 knots.