Maserati and Soldini’s Flying Multi70 Trimaran Just Broke a Sailing Record

April 16, 2021 is the day a Maserati finished one of the most sought-after events in the sailing world, Plymouth to La Rochelle. Not only did they finish this race successfully, but Multi70 trimaran team completed the journey in a record time of 12 hours, 15 minutes, and 21 seconds.

All 239 miles (384 kilometers), from the U.K. to France, were completed with an average speed of 26.84 knots, breaking the time set by Lloyd Thornburg and Brian Thompson back in 2015 by almost two hours.

Leading the six-man crew was Giovanni Soldini, the Multi70 skipper with over 25 years of ocean racing history. About the venture, Soldini explains: "Crossing the Channel we were sailing very fast, with 20-25 knots of north-easterly wind, then we arrived to Ouessant and it was great: the passage between the island and the coast is very narrow and we were sailing "a cannamorta" at 35 knots! Afterwards, sailing down along the French coast, the wind was 10-15 degrees more narrow than predicted and we slowed down, but we were able to achieve an excellent result, we're very happy!"

Currently, the record is subject to the World Sailing Speed Record Council's ratification before it’s official.

But what about the ship, after all, that’s what these races are all about. The Multi60 trimaran is exactly what its name suggests, a trimaran. Overall, the vessel stretches over 21.2 meter (69.55 feet) in length and has a beam of 16.8 meters (55.1 feet). With a 29-meter (95-meter) rotating wing mast, this trident of the seas displaces only 6.3 tons.

Designed by Van Peteghem Lauriot-Prévost and a former Team Gitana racing stable member, the Multi70 is at the top of the racing game. More optimized performance is brought by French designer Guillaume Verdier.

Also working on the design for the craft is, of course, Maserati themselves. Here, the team applied all the aerodynamic knowledge and know-how they have, through some of the most advanced CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) simulations possible, studying and predicting the behavior around the craft.

With numerous virtual tools and tests, the resulting vessel brings with it a 4% increase in propulsion force with less than a 1% rise in heeling force. With these numbers, the Multi70 can exceed cruising speeds of 43 knots in ideal condition. 43 friggin' knots!

As the vessel rises out of the water and takes flight, the foils and rudders are there to offer “unprecedented” stability while also reducing the amount of wetted surface area, boosting performance, and of course, speed.

This isn’t the end of this story either. Whenever a team like this is formed, they will be working with a vessel like this for years to come until it is finally tuned to its absolute peak performance and ability. In the process, new technological know-how is applied to developing designs to further the team’s conglomerate design goals.

What sort of goals? What do you mean? I thought that Maserati would be enough to tell you that it’s all about speed, and control of course. Just so you get a clear view of what this vessel means to Maserati, they’re calling it the “laboratory boat.”

With this sort of mentality, you can be sure to see more Multi70 news as this was one of the shorter races which this team has in mind of completing. Keep your eyes on autoevolution to see how this vessel and team evolve.