Maserati Multi70 to join the Rolex Middle Sea Race fleet

by studio-imagina.it on 20 Oct 2016 The Maserati Multi70 team has won its first race against time.

The Italian MOD70 will join the rest of the Rolex Middle Sea Race fleet at the start-line at 11.00 am on Saturday, October 22, sporting a Mod starboard foil and rudder. The latter were fitted in record time to replace the “flying” versions destroyed when Maserati Multi70 collided with a semi-submerged object during her passage from La Spezia to Malta.

“Incidents of this kind are normal for multihulls like MOD70s,” commented skipper Giovanni Soldini. “Rudder breakages are pretty common and luckily we were able to replace it without any trouble with the boat still in the water. The Mod rudder is already fitted and we now have to glue a piece of the steering system, finish a few details on the foil and sheave that moves the foil up and down. We’ll be finished by this evening. Though a few more days wouldn’t have hurt either”.

Moral aboard is high despite the fact that Maserati Multi70 will have a different trim than planned at the start. “The rudder we lost was a T-foil rudder,” continued Soldini. “These are complex components with custom bearings (around which the rudders rotate) and a different attachment system. Unfortunately you can’t rebuild a rudder like that in a couple of days. In fact, the rudder that replaced the T-foil one has a different, completely independent attachment system with its own bearings and steering system tubes. We managed to rebuild the support for the axis of rotation of the ripped-off rudder system”.

Tomorrow the Maserati Multi70 team will do a trial run – they’ll spend the day testing and running through final checks before the start on Saturday, October 22. The weather forecast for the race indicates an air flow from the west which means an entirely upwind route with moderate winds on Saturday, freshening in the final stretch.