Maserati team and Giovanni Soldini primed for 2014 Cape to Rio Race

Giovanni Soldini and Maserati primed for tomorrow's start of the Cape2Rio Yacht Race © Maserati

Giovanni Soldini and Maserati primed for tomorrow's start of the Cape2Rio Yacht Race © Maserati

Giovanni Soldini and Maserati primed for tomorrow's start of the Cape2Rio Yacht Race © Maserati

15-knot winds forecast for the off with a cold front and 50-knot winds coming up on Sunday

The 14th Cape2Rio Yacht Race - organised by the Royal Cape Yacht Club - gets underway at exactly 14.00 hours local time tomorrow (13.00 Italian time). The longest race between two Southern hemisphere continents, it takes its fleet on a 3,300-nautical mile dash from Table Bay, Cape Town (South Africa) to Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). Giovanni Soldini and his Maserati team are primed for their first Atlantic challenge of 2014. A total of 37 boats in all will be at the start line with Maserati, theonly 70 footer taking part.

Soldini is joined aboard by an international crew of nine: Italians Guido Broggi, Corrado Rossignoli and Michele Sighel; German Boris Herrmann; Spaniard Carlos Hernandez; French sailors Jacques Vincent and Gwen Riou; Dane Martin Kirketerp Ibsen; and, for the first time, Pierre Casiraghi from Monaco.

The first few days of the race look set to be particularly challenging with 12-15 knot north, north-westerly's forecast for the start followed by a cold front on Sunday with strong 40-50 knot winds.

"It's very far from a straightforward weather picture," explains skipper Giovanni Soldini. "On Sunday, we'll be meeting a cold front that is not, however, moving onshore. We will have to go looking for it to the west to ensure we get to the other side of it as quickly as possible. It's only after we get beyond it that we will have steady south, south-easterly winds that should push us all the way to Rio. We're totally primed and ready to go right now. Both crew and boat are in perfect order. We can't wait to get going."

Now on its 14th outing, the Cape2Rio Yacht Race was launched in 1971 in the wake of South African sailor BruceDalling's impressive second place overall and first place in adjusted time finish in the 1968 South Atlantic Single-handed Yacht Race. Dalling became in an instant national hero and ocean sailing quickly gained huge popularity amongst sailors and enthusiasts in South Africa.

The first Cape2Rio attracted 59 boats and was won by Robin Knox-Johnston and Ocean Spirit in a time of 23 days and 42 minutes. Pen Duick III, skippered by Eric Tabarly, finished in fourth position.

The third edition in 1976 saw a massive 126 boats from 19 different nations lined out at the start. These included two from Italy: Carlo di Mottola Balestra's Chica Tica II, which won in adjusted time, and Giorgio Falck's Guia III. Italian yachtswoman Ida Castiglioni, who had crewed aboard Edo Guzzetti's Namar IV in the 1973 edition, also raced aboard Kialoa with an all-woman crew.

In 1979, the finish line was moved to Punta del Este in Uruguay, 4,500 miles from Cape Town. However, in 1993, it returned to Rio once again. The race's name changed to the Cape to Bahia in 2006 to reflect its new finish line at Salvador de Bahia before being reinstated as the Cape2Rio once again in 2011.

The current race record (Cape Town-Rio de Janeiro) is held by Zephyrus IV, a 74' American maxi which completed the dash in 12 days, 16 hours and 49 minutes in 2000, after particularly favourable conditions (a very southerly anticyclone in the South Atlantic) allowed her to take a very direct course.

Updates with video footage and still photographs from the boat and a chart showing Maserati's position can be found at www.maseratisoldini.it and on the following social networks; Facebook and Twitter where the crew will tweet and post images from aboard.

The challenge is sponsored by our main partner, Maserati, after which the yacht is named, and by co-sponsors Swiss bank BSI (Generali Group) and Generali itself.

To follow the race visit www.cape2rio2014.com