Soto 40 One Design comes to Asia
by Tim Newton on 8 Jun 2010
The first Brazilian Soto 40 One Design, ’Mitsubishi’ Matias Capizzano
http://www.capizzano.com
Following on the successful establishment of a new premier one design class in the South American region, the Soto 40 One Design Class is now heading to Asia.
The Soto 40 has been the runaway success story of the last year with ten yachts about to cross the startline at the Ilhabela Race Week as part of their Circuit 2010, sponsored by Mitsubishi.
Meetings are being held in Singapore and Hong Kong in the last week of July to launch the yacht in the Asia region and provide opportunities to discuss the establishment of a similar Circuit and Grand Prix series. The builder M Boats has been involved since the inception of the project in South America. Owner, Javier Mendez says the Soto 40 was a result of a lot of disgruntled racing sailors.
'The Soto 40 grew out of dissatisfaction of the current boats and racing in South America where the costs of keeping a competitive racing yacht were reeling out of control. Keeping up with the latest rating changes also kept the boat builders and designers happy but the owners out of pocket. And the boats weren't very interesting to sail either, particularly in the sub-50ft range. So the Soto 40 one design was born and ten owners have already taken up the challenge, including Torben Grael, winner of the 2009 Volvo Ocean Race.', said Javier.
Five Soto 40s are also headed to Chile and the first US Soto 40 was launched in May this year.
If you are interested in learning more about the Soto 40 One Design and establishing a racing class in Asia you can register online by going to...
www.longitudeyachts.com or email info(at)longitudeyachts.com
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