Maserati’s Multi 70 Is The First Fully Sustainable Race-Winning Yacht

Achieving complete harmony between man, machine, and nature is an admirable, but rarely achieved, goal. Yet the Maserati Multi 70, a race-winning trimaran captained by Giovanni Soldini, is not only the world’s first fully sustainable racing yacht but a zero-emissions race craft with advanced oceanographic equipment for measuring and recording the health of the ocean.

The Maserati Multi 70 has already won races and broken records across the globe. The yacht and her crew work closely with the Maserati Innovation Lab, based in the automaker’s home city of Modern, Italy, to analyze and optimize the trimaran’s performance. This collaboration has helped the Multi 70 achieve higher speeds, break several world records, and win races over the past 5 years.

With its history of winning well established the Multi 70 is taking on a new role this year. The trimaran will now incorporate solar panels, a 15 kWh battery, and an electric motor as its backup power source. Wind is obviously the preferred motivation for competitive models like the Multi 70, but an alternative energy source is required if weather or equipment issues restrict that option.

A diesel engine/hybrid motor combination is the standard backup power source on these sailing ships, but Multi 70 will rely 100% on renewable energy. Giovanni Soldini told us the motor can propel the 7-ton craft at up to 8 knots. For comparison, under the right weather and wind conditions the Multi 70 can exceed 40 knots, so clearly the motor serves as a fall-back option only.

The Maserati Multi 70 leaves Los Angeles on July 1st at noon local time to compete with 60 other ships in the Transpacific Yacht Race, which ends in Hawaii approximately one week later. This route will take Giovanni Soldini and his crew of six past the notorious Pacific trash vortex, or “Plastic Island” made up of discarded trash that has collected between the West Coast and Hawaii.

It’s environmental hazards like Plastic Island that inspired Giovanni Soldini and Maserati to create a fully sustainable trimaran like the Multi 70. They intend to use it, in cooperation with UNESCO’s sustainable development goals and a team of scientists, to understand the health of the planet’s oceans as the Multi 70 embarks on a 44,000-mile journey around the world while recording data on the state of the seas.

An online tracking platform will follow the Multi 70’s travels across the globe, allowing fans (who can speak Italian) to keep up with the trimaran in real time as it combines its race-winning technology with environmental science and study.

Visit the Maserati.Soldini website to get more information.