Fraglia Vela Riva Sets Long-Term Plan to Boost Yacht Events and Local Economy

The Fraglia della Vela Riva, in short, has decided to aim high (it is willing to fully finance the necessary interventions in exchange for a long-term lease of the spaces, proportionate to the scale of the supported intervention) and, to safeguard its prestige – not that it needed to – it lays out a long series of data about the current year’s activities.

An intense schedule that began at the end of February with the «Riva Match Race» and concluded just a few days ago with the «National Match Race Championship». In between, nine months of continuous events, including the European Yngling Championship in April, the historic «Nastro Azzurro» for Cruiser and Monotype classes in June, the Women’s Match Race World Championship held in September on Lake Ledro, or, in the youth sector, the «Primavela – President’s Cup» reserved for Optimist, Aloha, Equipe, Mattia 14, Laser 4.7 classes, played at the end of August.

Participation and Impact on the Economy

A total of 4,436 competitors, coming from every corner of the globe, battled in the waters off Riva. Considering that each event involves an average of at least four days for each competitor, and that the number of participants must be added to the officials, relatives, chaperones, and coaches (estimated at about one person per competitor), simple calculations show: nearly 9,000 people (8,872, to be precise) who, with an average stay of 4 days, produce 35,488 annual presences.

An army of athletes, therefore, which clearly has a significant impact on Riva’s tourism economy and promises to grow further with more attentive policies and better facilities. The Fraglia is already prepared and has planned for the next three years a Bentau 25 class World Championship (2003), an Optimist World Championship (2004), and a Laser Radial World Championship (2005).