Italian sailor Giovanni Soldini finished a dominating performance in the Atlantic Alone Race from Falmouth England to Charleston South Carolina. Fila crossed the line at 0407 GMT (1207 Charleston time) July 27th.
Soldini's race took 21 days 17 hours 7 minutes and 20 seconds. This beats the time of 1994 winner Yves Parlier by 7 hours 15 minutes and 9 seconds.
The Atlantic Alone race serves as a tune up and delivery trip for the Around Alone. In the last edition of Around Alone, Soldini was second in Class II. As this performance shows he must rate as a favorite this time around it has not always been so certain for Soldini.
This spring Soldini took Fila on an attempt to break the record for the west to east Atlantic crossing. Near the finish of what looked to be a successful attempt Fila encountered a storm and rolled over. At some point during this Andrea Romanelli Soldini's close friend and Fila's co-designer was lost overboard.
This tragedy shook Soldini and set back his race preparations. Soldini was not sure about his solo racing future. He started Atlantic Alone uncertain and still down. He used the race, "find a good feeling with the boat."
Once on the course Soldini showed the tactical and meteorological stuff to make the correct call and head south. This was not the obvious move as it added considerable distance to the miles he had to sail. Soldini thought along these lines: "Would you rather sail upwind in 40 knots or downwind in 15 knots?" With this in mind he headed south avoided the light airs of the high pressure system and victory was rarely in doubt from this point on.