No, this is not America’s Cup news, but it is a cool story. Giovanni Soldini and the crew of Maserati are north of the equator, 2,200 nautical miles from San Francisco. They are 2,400 nm ahead of the monohull record pace. Yves Parlier set the monohull record in 1998.
The clipper ship Flying Cloud held the record from 1851 until 1989 – 138 years! Flying Cloud had two dismastings while setting the record in 1851, and the crew did the repairs while underway.
The Maserati crew have also had to do mast repairs – a batten car punched a hole in their mast! Here is a cool video of the repair: (El buco nell’albero = the hole in the mast).