Dragon - MARINA BOLTENHAGEN
Dragon - MARINA BOLTENHAGEN
Dragon - MARINA BOLTENHAGEN
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Italy. A dream that eventually became reality years later and much<br />
after his death.<br />
Piero contacted the IDA to become one of its members. Max<br />
Conti, owner of Ege, a fi berglass Borresen-built <strong>Dragon</strong> that was<br />
sporting ITA-32 on her mainsail, took the association helm in 1992.<br />
Max passionately went around Italy to rally <strong>Dragon</strong> owners, and<br />
rediscover old glories as Venilia, ITA-19, and Aretusa, ITA-18, 6th at<br />
the 1956 Olympic Games, which he found sunk in mud near Rome.<br />
Other owners joined later. Among them Paolo Manzoni, navigator<br />
in two America’s Cups, and three times <strong>Dragon</strong> Italian Champion,<br />
and Antonio Viretti, our current Association’s President. His<br />
knowledge and wisdom have been instrumental in steering the<br />
Italian <strong>Dragon</strong> Class safely to the current level.<br />
Italian <strong>Dragon</strong> racing experienced an acceleration in growth<br />
when Beppe Zaoli, the visionary President of the Sanremo Yacht<br />
Club, took <strong>Dragon</strong> racing to Sanremo in 2007, a location that soon<br />
became a favourite stop of the International <strong>Dragon</strong> racing circuit<br />
and the venue for the <strong>Dragon</strong> European Championship in 2014.<br />
In the last three years, Italian events have been growing in quality<br />
and quantity. Welcome additions were the Alassio <strong>Dragon</strong> Week,<br />
the Viareggio <strong>Dragon</strong> Cup, the Founders Cup in Civitanova Marche<br />
on the Adriatic Sea, and fi nally the Partnership and Ernesto Quaranta<br />
Trophy in Imperia. The Hans Detmar Wagner Cup, an appointment<br />
created some time ago by the German <strong>Dragon</strong> Association at<br />
Torbole on Italy’s Lake Garda, has been confi rming its popularity.<br />
To link past and present, the 61 year-old wooden <strong>Dragon</strong> Tergeste,<br />
ITA-4, raced there this year to fi nish 15th in 28 knot gusting winds!<br />
The RYCC Savoia, together with other Naples’ Yacht Clubs, will<br />
again be linking past and present as it plans to organize a major<br />
international regatta from 22-24 June 2012 and thus rekindle the<br />
memories of the 1960 Olympic Games. Participants to this and the<br />
Bank Aletti Trophy for classic <strong>Dragon</strong>s a week later, will enjoy RYCCS<br />
undisputed hospitality, an hospitality made of history, tradition,<br />
splendidly furnished premises, attention to detail and top quality<br />
racing.<br />
I am sure that Piero Guidi is now smiling in heaven happy to see<br />
his dream fulfi lled, as <strong>Dragon</strong> racing is back at the highest level in<br />
Italy – a dream he pushed with great determination.<br />
By Gianni Murzi with contributions from Antonio Viretti, Francesco<br />
Barthel and Susanna Guidi<br />
Page 23
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