Nicola Celon Wins Inaugural Memorial Franco Rao Regatta
Lake Garda recently played host to a very special regatta to honour and remember Franco Rao who died one year ago. Franco was one of the original Italian Melges 24 owners and as President of the Italian Melges 24 Class had played a vital role in bring both the Italian Volvo Cup series and the Volvo Melges 24 World Championship in Porto Cervo to life.
The regatta was hosted from Malcesine on the Lake's eastern bank and after 3 days of races Nicola Celon, steering Fantastica ITA-638, got an impressive result series: 5 first places and 3 second places. He scores first overall and won the first edition of Memorial Franco Rao Regatta.
Behind Fantastica in the final scoring list, SUI-684 steered by another Nico, Delle Kart, probably unknown and underestimated by many but at his last major event Nico was on the Austrian 49er at the recent Olympics.
The third place in the list is for Team Proximo. Everybody remembers when the Hungarian team, a few month ago, timidly knocked to be part of the Italian Melges circuit. Proximo Team choosed to invest in training, sailors and materials in order to reduce the gap and the result is clear. The helmsman in Malcesine was Zsombor Berecz, the Hungarian Laser helmsman in Qingdao.
In fourth place was Silvio Santoni sailing ITA-561 Devotissimo, the Melges24 owned by Franco Rao. The edition of Coppa Italia in 2007 was his last race in Melges24. Franco won that race just a few days before to pass away. For all his friends, the image of ITA-561 on the water brough many special memories and thoughts.
Gianluca Grisoli with ITA-671 is first in the Corinthian division just ahead of Massimo Magnani, ITA-563 Paola Frani,and Giovanni Pizzatti, ITA-664 Maidollis.