BACK TO VICTORY

This is Alzavola, my ancient sail boat, winning another regatta last Sunday, Oct. 18… although with a different captain. It’s a wooden boat, built in 1965, flat bottom, born for the oars and for the sail. I drove it for fifteen years in countless lagoon regattas, always scoring in the front positions. Then it became too demanding for me and I gave it up. It changed hands twice (everybody wanted it, this boat is a legend in the Venice lagoon because of its beauty and of its performances!) and the last owner, a great boat lover called Piero Fabris, restored it personally and last Sunday enrolled it in a regatta again… and came in first!  With the same sails, hand painted by me and Paola in the square in front of the Arsenale church… (we painted two flying birds because “alzavola” is the name of a migrating duck which visits our lagoon every year).

So the image above is the triumphal arrival last Sunday… and a friend of mine dug up in his archive a picture from the same competition in the year 2000… with me and Paola arriving first at the same finish line!

I hope you can read this, Anne Witty and Tom Jackson and the friends at Wooden Boat!

And here is Alzavola with me at the rudder: