Giovanni Soldini and Maserati primed for tomorrow¹s start of the Cape2Rio Yacht Race
The Maserati team and Giovanni Soldini primed for tomorrow’s start of the Cape2Rio Yacht Race
15-knot winds forecast for the off with a cold front and 50-knot winds coming up on Sunday
The 14th Cape2Rio Yacht Race – organised by the Royal Cape Yacht Club – gets underway at exactly 14.00 hours local time tomorrow (13.00 Italian time). The longest race between two Southern hemisphere continents, it takes its fleet on a 3,300-nautical mile dash from Table Bay, Cape Town (South Africa) to Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). Giovanni Soldini and his Maserati team are primed for their first Atlantic challenge of 2014. A total of 37 boats in all will be at the start line with Maserati, theonly 70 footer taking part. Soldini is joined aboard by an international crew of nine: Italians Guido Broggi, Corrado Rossignoli and Michele Sighel; German Boris Herrmann; Spaniard Carlos Hernandez; French sailors Jacques Vincent and Gwen Riou; Dane Martin Kirketerp Ibsen; and, for the first time, Pierre Casiraghi from Monaco. The first few days of the race look set to be particularly challenging with 12-15 knot north, north-westerly’s forecast for the start followed by a cold front on Sunday with strong 40-50 knot winds.
“It’s very far from a straightforward weather picture,” explains skipper Giovanni Soldini. “On Sunday, we’ll be meeting a cold front that is not, however, moving onshore. We will have to go looking for it to the west to ensure we get to the other side of it as quickly as possible. It’s only after we get beyond it that we will have steady south, south-easterly winds that should push us all the way to Rio. We’re totally primed and ready to go right now. Both crew and boat are in perfect order. We can’t wait to get going.” Now on its 14th outing, the Cape2Rio Yacht Race was launched in 1971 in the wake of South African sailor BruceDalling’s impressive second place overall and first place in adjusted time finish in the 1968 South Atlantic Single-handed Yacht Race. Dalling became in an instant national hero and ocean sailing quickly gained huge popularity amongst sailors and enthusiasts in South Africa. The first Cape2Rio attracted 59 boats and was won by Robin Knox-Johnston and Ocean Spirit in a time of 23 days and 42 minutes. Pen Duick III, skippered by Eric Tabarly, finished in fourth position. The third edition in 1976 saw a massive 126 boats from 19 different nations lined out at the start. These included two from Italy: Carlo di Mottola Balestra’s Chica Tica II, which won in adjusted time, and Giorgio Falck’s Guia III. Italian yachtswoman Ida Castiglioni, who had crewed aboard Edo Guzzetti’s Namar IV in the 1973 edition, also raced aboard Kialoa with an all-woman crew. In 1979, the finish line was moved to Punta del Este in Uruguay, 4,500 miles from Cape Town. However, in 1993, it returned to Rio once again. The race’s name changed to the Cape to Bahia in 2006 to reflect its new finish line at Salvador de Bahia before being reinstated as the Cape2Rio once again in 2011. The current race record (Cape Town-Rio de Janeiro) is held by Zephyrus IV, a 74’ American maxi which completed the dash in 12 days, 16 hours and 49 minutes in 2000, after particularly favourable conditions (a very southerly anticyclone in the South Atlantic) allowed her to take a very direct course.
The challenge is sponsored by our main partner, Maserati, after which the yacht is named, and by co-sponsors Swiss bank BSI (Generali Group) and Generali itself. MASERATI Maserati’s support of and participation in this important Italian sporting and technological challenge underscores the company’s role as a world ambassador for Italian excellence. Maserati itself continues that renowned tradition of excellence each and every day in 65 countries worldwide, through hugely successful luxury cars of the likes of the Quattroporte, the GranTurismo, the GranCabrio and the brand-new Ghibli, whose performance on the road mirrors the achievements of Giovanni Soldini and Maserati on the water. BSI Bank With around € 72.5 billion of asset management and 140 years of history, BSI is one of the oldest and most important banks in Switzerland. Established in Lugano in 1873, BSI is specialised in private wealth management. Since 1998, the Bank has been wholly owned by the Generali Group, one of the most significant participants in the global insurance and financial products market. The Bank places great emphasis on establishing and maintaining ongoing personal relationships with clients, while at the same time offering global asset management services with world-class products. BSI is present in the major financial markets worldwide, in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia. Generali The Generali Group is one of Europe’s largest insurance providers and its largest life assurer, with a total premium income in 2012 of €70 billion.
With 80,000 employees worldwide and 65 million clients in more than 60 countries, the Group occupies a leadership position on Western European markets and is playing an increasingly important role too in Central and Eastern Europe, and Asia. The official suppliers to the challenge are Zegna Sport (clothing), Vodafone Italia (telecommunication services and official website development) and Boero Bartolomeo S.p.A. (speciaist hull paints and enamels). The Ermenegildo Zegna Group is a leading luxury menswear brand and one of the most renowned businesses in Italy. Founded in 1910, the company is currently managed by the fourth generation of the Zegna family, with over 540 branded stores in more than 100 countries around the world.
The Zegna Sport collection was launched in 1999 as a line of clothing in which functionality, style and advanced technology are the basic ingredients for a high-performance wardrobe. Initially created for sports activities, the contemporary evolution of the collection delivers a total look that is perfect for today’s metropolitan lifestyle. Vodafone Italia is part of the Vodafone Group, one of the world’s leading mobile communications groups, serving over 404 million clients. The Vodafone Group has a direct presence in more than 30 countries as well as network partnership deals in a further 50. In Italy, Vodafone boasts around 7,500 employees, 8 Competence Centers and in excess of 7,000 stores. Also aboard Maserati are Eataly (provisioning), Beta Utensili (all professional tools), Corderia Lancelin (specialist lines and cables), Jeppesen (cartography), B&G Navico (technical assistance with onboard instrumentation), Cantiere Picchiotti of La Spezia (Maserati’s home base ashore), and the La Spezia Port Authority (Maserati’s home port afloat).
