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Black Tie
International:
Maserati
Sails for Autism Speaks |
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Maserati sails for Autism Speaks
Photos: Blacktiemagazine/DC
(Story, names
and titles to post shortly) |
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Guests 1 |
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Guests 2 |
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Maserati Crew
and Debra Caldwell |
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A Little
Background on the Boat |
GIOVANNI
SOLDINI AND MASERATI:
CHALLENGING TIME
Maserati and Soldini to break Atlantic sailing
records,
together with BSI and Generali
Maserati presents its race against time, teaming up with
world-renowned sailor Giovanni Soldini in an attempt to
break three important and historic North Atlantic
sailing records.
FIAT chairman, John Elkann and the president of the
Yacht Club Italiano, Carlo Croce, introduce the
challenge, where Soldini and his team of nine sailors
will next year captain the yacht Maserati in an attempt
to break the Cadiz-San Salvador (Bahamas), Miami-New
York and New York-Lizard Point (UK) records.
The three ocean course attempts will be monitored by the
World Sailing Speed Record Council, the international
body certifying the record times on the historic clipper
routes.
“I am happy that two major companies have decided to
approach the world of ocean sailing by supporting this
important Italian enterprise", said Giovanni Soldini,
who already has two circumnavigations and over 30
Atlantic crossings to his name.
“We intend to be the first Italian boat to set a record
on an official WSSRC route and breaking the North
Atlantic record has always been one of my life’s
dreams.”
While the principal partner for the challenge is
Maserati, whose name has been given to the boat, the
challenge is co-sponsored by the Swiss bank BSI (Generali
Group) and Generali itself. Maserati will fly the
pennant of the Yacht Club Italiano, which was founded in
1879 and is the oldest sailing club in the Mediterranean
Sea. Vodafone Italia and Boero Bartolomeo S.p.A. will be
official suppliers to the challenge, with Bulgari as the
Official Time Keeper.
“Maserati is lending its name to a boat that represents
the synthesis of nautical technology and with which
Soldini and his crew will attempt to break major ocean
records,” said Harald Wester, CEO of Maserati S.p.A.
“Giovanni Soldini aboard Maserati expresses the absolute
symbiosis of values – passion, emotion, speed,
adrenalin, innovation along with craftsmanship and an
Italian identity – between the Trident marque and the
great Italian yachtsman in a series of offshore
challenges
on a global scale.””
The Maserati CEO’s enthusiasm was reflected by the
challenge’s
other partners.
“The Yacht Club Italiano is delighted to be partnering
Giovanni Soldini and Maserati in this important
challenge", declared Carlo Croce, president of the Yacht
Club Italiano.
“We were keen to support an initiative that would carry
us towards the next Volvo Ocean Race, focussing on a
very interesting sequence
of records.”
Alfredo Gysi, CEO of BSI SA, the Gruppo Generali bank
specialising in private wealth management, also
expressed his pleasure in supporting
the attempt.
“We are pleased to support, together with Maserati,
Giovanni Soldini and his crew and recognise the great
sporting value of their project”, he declared. “Tackling
such a challenge requires great technical expertise,
team spirit and aspiration to excellence: all values
that are fully reflected
in our group.”
MASERATI
With the boat Maserati, the Trident marque is partnering
Giovanni Soldini in this ambitious project. The
confrontation with time, the emotions generated by
speed, the adrenalin deriving from competition are of
course all elements that have indelibly marked
Maserati's almost hundred-year history. That history
includes Maserati’s first land speed record set by
Bakunin Borzacchini in 1929 to the victories at
Indianapolis in 1939 and 1940, the two F1 World
Championship titles of Juan Manuel Fangio in 1954 and
1957 and the FIA GT1 world title won by
the Maserati MC12 in 2010.
However, Maserati, a company that has always made
innovation one of its strong suits, is by no means new
to speed records on water. As early as the 1930s, the
Maserati brothers tested two paired 16-cylinder engines
at sea and, in 1955, a Maserati engine conquered five
powerboat world championships. For 12 consecutive years
until 1969, Maserati’s eight-cylinder engines won 19
world, four European and 10 Italian titles in various
categories.
Maserati’s present commitment to Giovanni Soldini
therefore represents a kind of return to the future for
the Trident marque.
With the support of and participation in this major
Italian sporting and technological project, Maserati is
confirming its role as a global ambassador for the
excellence Italy is capable of expressing. Maserati’s
excellence is displayed with passion every day in 65
countries around the world through successful products
of the highest quality such as the Quattroporte, the
GranTurismo and the GranTurismo Convertible, cars whose
performance reflect on the road the performance
expressed at sea by Giovanni Soldini and Maserati.
BSI
Founded at Lugano (Switzerland) in 1873, BSI SA is one
of the oldest banks in Switzerland and specialises in
private wealth management. Since 1998, it has been a
wholly-owned subsidiary of the Generali Group, one of
the major international insurance and finance
institutions. BSI focuses on establishing and
maintaining enduring and continuous relationships with
its clients, offering efficient and high level global
management services. The company is present on the
principal international financial markets in Europe,
Latin America, the Middle East and Asia.
GENERALI
The Generali Group is one of the largest European
insurance firms, the European market leader in the life
insurance sector, with total premiums of over €73
million in 2010. With a staff numbering 85,000 around
the world serving 70 million clients in over 60
different countries, the group occupies a leading
position in Western Europe and has an increasingly
significant presence on the Eastern European and Asian
markets.
Maserati
Maserati is a VOR 70 that participated in the 2008-2009
round-the-world race. An ultra-technological boat of
over 20 metres, it makes a case to be the world's
fastest single-hull yacht thanks to a carbon-fibre mast
more than 30 metres high, a canting keel, mobile water
ballast tanks, forward canard fins, its extremely sleek
waterlines and its structures
in composite materials.
As Soldini explains: “After three months in dry dock,
Maserati is 10% lighter and more powerful, with a
greater self-righting capacity. We have worked to obtain
a more stern-heavy configuration, thus making Maserati
particularly well suited to sailing at higher speeds.”
The records
The schedule of records presents approximate dates,
bearing in mind each voyage has to start with ideal
meteorological conditions, which will be decided at the
last moment by a team of meteorologists. If conditions
are favourable, Giovanni Soldini and Maserati will also
attempt to break the record for the longest distance
covered by a single-hull yach
t in a 24-hour period.
January 2012: Cadiz-San Salvador (Bahamas) – 3,884 miles
(no time reference to beat: absolute record held by
Franck Cammas, trimaran
Groupama, May 2007.
March 2012: Miami-New York – 947 miles (no time
reference to beat: absolute record held by Frank Cammas,
trimaran Groupama, June 2007).
April 2012: New York-Lizard Point (UK) – 2,925 miles
(record to beat 6 days, 17 hours, 52 minutes, 39 seconds
set by Robert Miller aboard the monohull Mary Cha IV,
October 2003; average speed of 18.5 knots).
According to the schedule Maserati will be put into the
water in November 2011. November and December 2011 will
be devoted to
fine-tuning the boat and selecting and training the crew. |
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