Giovanni Soldini

After several experiences and two ocean crossings, thanks to the support of shipowner Domenico Ranalli, Giovanni Soldini enters the international sports scene with the Open 50 Looping and in 1991 he participates in his first solo regatta: La Boule-Dakar. For the occasion, the boat is renamed Sponsor Wanted, because Giovanni is looking for financial backers. At the same time he meets meteorologist Pierre Lasnier, who will accompany him for his life as a sailor.

In 1992, having found his first sponsors, he participates in the Ostar (the solo transatlantic) finishing second. Aboard Looping he also takes part in the Québec-Saint Malo. On the return crossing, from Canada to France, he loses his keel and capsizes in the middle of the Atlantic. After a dramatic shipwreck, Giovanni and his crew are rescued by a 150-meter German cargo ship, the Independent Pursuit, which takes them to Philadelphia.

In 1993, without a boat or a sponsor, Giovanni sought funding. Thanks to a group of friends, acquaintances, and industry professionals – 48 partners willing to bet on him and create a dedicated company – he began construction of a 50-foot yacht designed by Berret. He set up the boatyard inside a rehabilitation community and named the boat Stupefacente.

“I didn’t just want to build a racing boat, I was looking for an experience that went beyond sporting ambition. I wanted to create something collective and meaningful for everyone involved.”

Giovanni Soldini fulfilled his dream of competing in the solo round-the-world race, the BOC Challenge (later renamed Around Alone) in 1994. He won two of the four legs and, after a fiercely fought race, finished second in the Open 50 class, behind Australian sailor David Adams.

On the boat renamed Telecom Italia, after its new sponsor, Giovanni Soldini installed a carbon mast and dominated the 1994-95 season, winning major competitions.

In 1996, With his 50-footer, Soldini won every race he entered. He began with victory in the Roma per Due (Rome for Two), sailing double-handed with Isabelle Autissier. He then won the Europe 1 Star (formerly OSTAR), the most renowned solo transatlantic race from Plymouth (UK) to Newport (USA). He also competed in the Québec–Saint Malo with a crew made up of Enrico Caccia, Andrea Tarlarini, Andrea Romanelli, Guido Broggi, and Bruno Laurent. In that edition, they finished second overall – a particularly special race for him.

At the end of 1996, following a remarkable racing season, Giovanni Soldini brought together a group of sponsors – FILA, TELECOM, and BNL – and built the world’s first 60-foot monohull featuring both a canting keel and a wing mast. The boat was innovative and technologically cutting-edge. The design was by Jean-Marie Finot, assisted by Andrea Romanelli, who, after his experiences with Moro di Venezia and the Mini Transat, joined Finot’s team.

The boat was launched at the end of 1997.

In March 1998, FILA attempted to break the North Atlantic record between New York and Cape Lizard. The first days went very well, but then a storm hit and capsized the boat just 300 miles from the finish. In the incident, Andrea Romanelli – friend and teammate – was lost at sea and never recovered. It was a devastating tragedy that would forever mark the lives of everyone involved.

“What remained was this boat, which held so much of Andrea inside it: ideas, notes, marks and numbers written on the walls. The only thing I could do was take good care of it and make it go fast. That’s why I got right back on FILA – it was the only way to react.”
(from an interview with Gazzetta dello Sport, October 3, 1998)

FILA was repaired and lined up for the start of the Atlantic Alone not in ideal condition – and yet Giovanni won the solo transatlantic race from Falmouth (England) to Charleston (South Carolina, USA), which served as a qualifier for the Around Alone in the 60-foot class.

In the Around Alone, FILA performed excellently, winning one of the first two legs. Then, during the third leg – from Auckland to Punta del Este – in the Southern Pacific, the boat of French sailor Isabelle Autissier capsized at 60° South, more than 3,000 miles from land between New Zealand and Cape Horn. Giovanni diverted course to rescue her, successfully recovering her on February 16, 1999.

Despite now having two people on board, Soldini went on to win that leg, and then again took first place in the next leg, from Punta del Este to Charleston – securing overall victory in the solo round-the-world race. It remains the first and only time an Italian sailor has won such a race.

On February 29, 2000, Soldini received the Légion d’honneur, France’s highest civilian honor, awarded at the Paris Maritime Museum by fellow sailor Gérard d’Aboville, by decision of French President Jacques Chirac, in recognition of the rescue of Isabelle Autissier.

In early 2001, Soldini launched the ORMA 60, an ocean racing trimaran designed by Van Peteghem-Lauriot Prévost. Initially sponsored by Fila and later by TIM, he took part in all the ocean races and inshore Grand Prix events organized by the ORMA circuit.

This multihull chapter lasted until 2005 and was a thrilling experience: the class was fiercely competitive, the level of performance extremely high, and Giovanni’s trimaran was the first italian ORMA 60 ever built.

It was a pivotal experience for Soldini, who competed in the Route du Rhum, the OSTAR, and three editions of the Transat Jacques Vabre. In the 2005 edition, the trimaran capsized and was ultimately lost in the ocean, about 500 miles off the coast of Dakar. Giovanni Soldini and his crewmate and longtime friend Vittorio Malingri were rescued by a passing oil tanker.

On February 12, 2004, the President of the Italian Republic, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, appointed him Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.

In 2007, with a design by Guillaume Verdier, Giovanni Soldini launched a prototype Class 40 – a growing class of boats designed to be similar and cost-controlled. The first race he entered and won, was the Transat Jacques Vabre, sailing double-handed with Pietro D’Alì. The sponsor was Telecom Italia.

Between 2008 and 2009, Soldini claimed another major solo victory: in May, he won The Artemis Transat (formerly OSTAR) for the second time – 2,955 miles across the Atlantic Ocean from Plymouth to Boston. That same year, he also competed in the Fastnet Race and once again in the Québec–Saint Malo.

He went on to win the Class 40 World Championship, as well as the Les Sables – Horta – Les Sables and the Transmanche.

Still racing with Pietro D’Alì, he finished second in La Solidaire du Chocolat, from Nantes (France) to Progreso (Mexico).

With Ericsson 3, renamed Maserati, Giovanni Soldini launched a monohull ocean racing program that led to several new records.

In 2012, Maserati VOR70 set out to break the historic New York – San Francisco route record, covering 13,219 nautical miles via Cape Horn. On February 16, 2013, it crossed the finish line under the Golden Gate Bridge, setting a new monohull record for the Golden Route: 47 days, 0 hours, 42 minutes, and 29 seconds. The crew alongside Soldini included American Ryan Breymaier, Frenchman Sébastien Audigane, Chinese sailor Jianghe Teng, Spanish Carlos Hernández, German Boris Herrmann, and Italians Guido Broggi, Michele Sighel and Corrado Rossignoli.

In 2014, Maserati VOR70 won the 14th Cape2Rio (a 3,300-nautical-mile transoceanic race from Cape Town to Rio de Janeiro), setting a new record of 10 days, 11 hours, 29 minutes, and 57 seconds. In 2015, it set another record on the San Francisco – Shanghai route, one of the historic Tea Trade Routes, officially recognized by the World Sailing Speed Record Council with a time of 21 days, 19 hours, 32 minutes, and 54 seconds.

Among other achievements, Maserati VOR70 finished fourth in the 71st Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race – one of the world’s toughest regattas – sailing the 628 nautical miles from Australia to Tasmania in 2 days, 22 hours, 54 minutes, and 33 seconds.

In 2016, after three years with the monohull Maserati VOR70, Giovanni Soldini and his team began testing on a multihull (formerly Gitana). At 21.2 meters long, 16.8 meters wide, with a 29-meter wing mast and a displacement of 6.3 tons, Maserati Multi70 rises above the water with unique flight stability. Using foils and rudders, it significantly boosts performance. This ultralight trimaran can fly at over 40 knots, combining cutting-edge technology, speed, reliability, and safety.

That same year, Soldini returned to international racing at the helm of Maserati Multi70, a state-of-the-art ocean trimaran from the MOD70 class, designed by the Van Peteghem Lauriot-Prévost studio and won the 37th Rolex Middle Sea Race, setting a new multihull benchmark with a time of 2 days, 1 hour, 25 minutes, and 1 second. It also completed its first ocean race, finishing second in the third edition of the RORC Transatlantic Race.

In 2017, the team placed third in the Transpac Race from Los Angeles to Honolulu. For most of the crossing, the trimaran battled for the lead with American multihulls Phaedo3 and Mighty Merloe, until a collision with floating debris destroyed the rudder, ending their bid for victory.

In 2018, he completed the Hong Kong – London route in 36 days, 2 hours, 37 minutes, and 2 seconds, cutting five days off the previous record held by Gitana. Still aboard Maserati Multi70, Soldini won the 39th Rolex Middle Sea Race (2 days, 11 hours, 54 minutes, 58 seconds), the 5th RORC Transatlantic Race (6 days, 18 hours, 54 minutes, 34 seconds), and the 11th RORC Caribbean 600, setting a new multihull record: 1 day, 6 hours, 49 minutes.

After more than two years away from the Mediterranean, Maserati Multi70 returned in October 2020 for the 41st Rolex Middle Sea Race, taking Line Honours in 2 days, 8 hours, 31 minutes, 31 seconds – 15 minutes ahead of MOD70 Mana, skippered by Brian Thompson.

After maintenance work in La Spezia, Soldini returned to sea in 2021, setting two new speed records: Monaco – Saint Tropez in 2 hours, 25 minutes, 44 seconds, and Monaco – Porto Cervo in 7 hours, 50 minutes, 44 seconds. That spring, he broke three more records in the English Channel: Plymouth – La Rochelle (12h 15m 21s), Cowes – Dinard Channel Record (4h 30m 49s), and the original Fastnet route (23h 51m 16s), becoming the first sailor to complete it in under 24 hours.

In 2022, Soldini and the Maserati Multi70 crew won Line Honours in the RORC Transatlantic Race and finished second in the RORC Caribbean 600. In the Mediterranean, they won the Regata dei Tre Golfi and placed third in the Rolex Middle Sea Race. Back in Liguria, the trimaran underwent a major retrofit and returned to the water fully electrified.

At the beginning of 2023, they once again won the RORC Transatlantic Race, setting a new record of 5 days, 5 hours, 46 minutes, and 26 seconds. Alongside racing, the team carried out sea trials of the full-electric system, and, in the course of the year, Soldini completed his first fully energy-autonomous circumnavigation of the globe.

2024 – Giovanni Soldini is named Team Principal of Ferrari Hypersail, the new sports project that brings Ferrari to compete on the sea as well.