German Buyer Acquires Garda Record-Breaking Yacht Raffica
Flagging under the German flag the record-breaking boat of the «Centomiglia», the sailing race symbol of Garda. «Raffica», the splendid Liberi class boat that has won five editions of the classic competition, was indeed sold by its owner and skipper Lorenzo Rizzardi to the German industrialist Gerd Muller, who shares the same name as the legendary striker of the German national team in the Seventies. The negotiation reportedly went on for quite a while, and eventually, the two entrepreneurs reached an agreement on the basis, it seems, of a sum between 100 and 150 million lire.
Details of the sale and curiosity about the buyer
An official amount but surely underestimated, considering that «Raffica» is still a lady racing yacht. Muller, among other things, is a well-known sailor on Garda, as he is the owner of «Telebox» and has possessed several yachts of the Liberi class.
Rizzardi’s new project
Renzo Rizzardi, a port sector entrepreneur originally from Idro but residing in Brescia and Manerba, where he manages a private port in Dusano with a partner, now turns the page and is seeking a new racing yacht. We asked him if he feels nostalgic without his «Raffica». «Not really — he underlines —, the Raffica project (which echoes the names of my daughter Raffaella and my wife Carla) dates back nine years; in the meantime, there has been significant evolution in the world of racing boats, an evolution that now allows me to build a new competitive, winning boat. It should be ready in a year or two at most.»
Will it be another maxi-liberi? «Yes, I repeat, I am already working on it.» Who will be the designer? «Rationality tells me to repeat the experience with Bruce Farr, but…»
The designer and the previous history
Who else is he thinking of? «An Italian, a Gardesano to be precise, who is very skilled: Umberto Felci.» «Raffica» was built in 1992 by the Cantiere Patucelli in Gargnano, designed by the New Zealander Bruce Farr, who already had yachts in his portfolio that wrote the best pages of the «Centomiglia» history: «Farrneticante», «Grifo», «Lillo» among others.
In the Nineties, it was Rizzardi’s boat that set the standard in the Garda classic, winning five editions with four different skippers: Ballerini, Dusan Puh, Benamati, and Desenzanese Luca Valerio, the representative of Fraglia Vela Desenzano. «Raffica» also dazzled by winning prestigious trophies such as two «Deutschland Cup» and three «Bol d’Or», in addition to dozens of Garda regattas (from «Gorla» to the Garda Cup).