Having competed in the Transat three times already, thirty-eight year old, Italian sailor Giovanni Soldini is one of the most experienced Transat competitors in the fleet.

Sailing his three-year old trimaran Tim Progetto Italia, Soldini hopes to improve on his fifth place in the 2000 edition. Interestingly however, despite his amazing track record in his previous string of boats which includes wins in the Around Alone, Atlantic Alone, Quebec-St Malo and a class win in 1996 Transat (Europe 1 Star as it was known then), Soldini has yet to discover the true potential of his most recent trimaran.

Designed by Marc van Peterghem/Vincent Lauriot Prevost, Tim Progetto Italia has suffered a string of misfortunes including a hull torsion problem as recent as last year during the Jacque Vabre. A similar problem occurred the year before too, this time during the Route du Rhum. Commenting on the situation Soldini said: "Yes, I've had a lot of technical problems on the boat and a huge problem with the central hull. The hull was really broken and I even had water inside. It was a design fault so the designers have been working with us to correct the problem. Consequently we've spent a lot of this winter carrying out repairs. I can only hope the problem won't happen again. The hull is now stronger because there's a lot more carbonfibre been added."

Here in Plymouth Soldini seems to have put his recent hull problems behind him and reckons his 100 percent prepared although at this stage, with three days to the start, he hasn't yet finalised his tactics. "All I know," added Soldini, "is there's going to be some big winds arriving for the start and it's going to be tough out there. The start is more likely to be into headwinds so the speed difference between the others in the class will be similar."

As a Transat 'old timer' and someone who obviously enjoys competing in this race, it was interesting to chat to Soldini about his view on the new professional race format. Commenting on the new-style transatlantic race Soldini said: "I enjoy the race very much, but I have to say I preferred the race as it was before, in its previous format. I think it's not so good to have two races for the large and smaller yachts. It was the only race where everyone mixed together. It was very nice like that. Now it is just like any other professional French race and I think we lose a lot. The race as it was before was unique and special. For me it was much better to be together; for us on the professional side and for the amateurs. I think the amateurs will lose out because they have no budget for PR and lose out on publicity. If we were all here together there's more chance they'd get space."

After the Transat Soldini will be competing in the Quebec-St Malo where he hopes to improve on his second place in the 2000 event.

Yachting World, 28 May 2004