Fabio Buzzi 1943 - 2019

Although it is sad that these people have died - am I alone in thinking that this was an utterly pointless endeavour and a total waste of life? Just what was the objective of this ridiculous stunt in the first place? I don’t wish to denigrate FB and his achievements in a bygone age, but surely the world has moved on from noisy, polluting, wildlife damaging internal combustion powered boat record attempts?

Apart from the loss of human life, I just wonder about the impact on marine life of a boat travelling at that speed with large fast rotating and unshielded props, the underwater noise and pollution, and above surface noise and pollution - to achieve absolutely zilch...

I think you are alone.
 
It's sad and all, but how did he manage to crash into a breakwater? Seems a bit reckless?

There will be an inquest so in due course your question will be answered.

Just as a parallel in terms of organisation.....

Been doing a few “ Alpine rally’s “ in the Alps .Time trials .
Multiple timed stages . One 300 km other 200 km in total L .+ overall time for the day .
The organisers do a (1) morning breakfast briefing and usually with theses kind of distances there’s a course amendment to do in the route book , despite best planning , road works , fallen tree etc .

(2) All the stages are proof driven by volunteers in the organisation many weeks beforehand.

How ever given the gravity ( no pun intended) of coming off the road 1000 ,s of feet up they (3) send a car 10;mins ahead of the first competitor to in effect do as best as possible a proof test of the route before the 50 odd competitors released in timed intervals arrive .

So there’s (3 ) things to think about re preventing crashing out .

1-Briefing
3-Proof test the route
3- Pace car / boat ahead for each stage / leg - not necessarily obviously the same guy .

I won’t speculate what went wrong here .

Tragic loss .
 
Although it is sad that these people have died - am I alone in thinking that this was an utterly pointless endeavour and a total waste of life? Just what was the objective of this ridiculous stunt in the first place? I don’t wish to denigrate FB and his achievements in a bygone age, but surely the world has moved on from noisy, polluting, wildlife damaging internal combustion powered boat record attempts?

Apart from the loss of human life, I just wonder about the impact on marine life of a boat travelling at that speed with large fast rotating and unshielded props, the underwater noise and pollution, and above surface noise and pollution - to achieve absolutely zilch...

Considering this is the motorboat section and people are trying to pay their respects to a great leader in his field I would say you are alone and your thoughts best kept to yourself at this time.
 
Don't feed the trolls, folks: I know it's a mobo forum, but we're still in the cyberspace anyway. We have to take the good with the bad of it.

This is truly beyond sad, also because the tragedy seems likely to have been due (even if obviously there will be proper investigations) just to a moment of fatigue-driven distraction, in the awareness of having achieved yet another outstanding result.
In fact, for those gentlemen, normally that situation would have been as risky as it is for us to go out with our sedate boats in glorious sunshine and flat waters.

Anyway, the boating world has definitely lost one of its founding fathers.
Last year, after watching this one minute video, I remember to have thought that FB was a true highlander of this industry.
But unfortunately, immortal he wasn't.
RIP FB with your crew, you will surely be in good company up there, together with Riva, Baglietto, Benetti, Amati, Spertini, and many others!
 
The British pilot is John Ryan.
Just for the records, contrarily to the first news, the other two crew members who lost their lives were Luca Nicolini (Italian) and Erik Hoorn (Dutch).
Mario Invernizzi (also Italian) is instead the only survivor, who as I was told is seriously injuried but conscious and not in danger of life.
Apparently, he was thrown out of the cockpit upon impact.
 
Although it is sad that these people have died - am I alone in thinking that this was an utterly pointless endeavour and a total waste of life? Just what was the objective of this ridiculous stunt in the first place? I don’t wish to denigrate FB and his achievements in a bygone age, but surely the world has moved on from noisy, polluting, wildlife damaging internal combustion powered boat record attempts?

Apart from the loss of human life, I just wonder about the impact on marine life of a boat travelling at that speed with large fast rotating and unshielded props, the underwater noise and pollution, and above surface noise and pollution - to achieve absolutely zilch...
Well said.
+1
 
Considering this is the motorboat section and people are trying to pay their respects to a great leader in his field I would say you are alone and your thoughts best kept to yourself at this time.

Well said . Let’s keep this thread to paying respects to all those that lost their lives and their families
 
Just for the records, contrarily to the first news, the other two crew members who lost their lives were Luca Nicolini (Italian) and Erik Hoorn (Dutch).
Mario Invernizzi (also Italian) is instead the only survivor, who as I was told is seriously injuried but conscious and not in danger of life.
Apparently, he was thrown out of the cockpit upon impact.

Correct. Apparently the two british pilots who had to be onboard, one of which was John Ryan could not make it in-time. So Buzzi find a replacement. I will update the post.
 
Although it is sad that these people have died - am I alone in thinking that this was an utterly pointless endeavour and a total waste of life? Just what was the objective of this ridiculous stunt in the first place? I don’t wish to denigrate FB and his achievements in a bygone age, but surely the world has moved on from noisy, polluting, wildlife damaging internal combustion powered boat record attempts?

Apart from the loss of human life, I just wonder about the impact on marine life of a boat travelling at that speed with large fast rotating and unshielded props, the underwater noise and pollution, and above surface noise and pollution - to achieve absolutely zilch...

Ok so i'll bite

Heres my thoughts... Without pioneers such as these pushing the envelope of that is technically achievable, the human race would probably stagnate, if not regress.

I'll assume you're a sailing man/woman/person, so what's the point in the America cup, or a sailing solo world record attempt etc?

Plus they probably died doing something that they love, I could think of worse ways to go.
 
How on earth did this thread, which is about the sad demise of one of the most respected power boat designers and racers in the world, deteriorate to this level? Shame on you guys. Anyway just by way of a poignant coincidence, a fellow forumite and I were enjoying lunch next to Lake Como along with some motorbiking mates just a few days ago and we spotted a Buzzi hulled Guardia Finanza patrol boat on the quay outside the restaurant. Note the STAB tubes on the hull similar to the new Sunseeker Hawk 38 and of course Buzzi's design studio is near Lake Como

IMG-0355.jpg
 
How on earth did this thread, which is about the sad demise of one of the most respected power boat designers and racers in the world, deteriorate to this level?
Absolutely - not to mention a true gentleman.

As a small aside, glad to see that you enjoyed some fine weather, M.
It's a real pity that we couldn't catch up - that spot where you had lunch is less than 10 mins N of my holiday home in Menaggio.
Enjoy the rest of your trip.
 
As a small aside, glad to see that you enjoyed some fine weather, M.
It's a real pity that we couldn't catch up - that spot where you had lunch is less than 10 mins N of my holiday home in Menaggio.
Enjoy the rest of your trip.
The weather was excellent and we had a great trip but unfortunately we finished yesterday already with my friends returning to UK and me to SoF
 
Moderators please delete this post by Ric as it is in no way appropriate bearing in mind 3 people have lost their lives

I’d agree take down this post .
What a very sad loss for the world of fast motor boats and a true gent I’m sure.
Yes Ric you are alone , we all do dangerous things in life to achieve what’s in our hearts and what makes us feel alive .
What’s the point in living if you can’t feel alive , that’s exactly how FB and his team lived there lives , absolutely brilliant achievements.
 
I’d agree take down this post .
What a very sad loss for the world of fast motor boats and a true gent I’m sure.
Yes Ric you are alone , we all do dangerous things in life to achieve what’s in our hearts and what makes us feel alive .
What’s the point in living if you can’t feel alive , that’s exactly how FB and his team lived there lives , absolutely brilliant achievements.

The whole thread should go, I’ve never seen so many moderator deleted posts in one thread. And this after the death of 3 people!

It was meant to be a tribute to a famous boater, sadly it’s descended into a tragic farce. Ric has the right to say what he did, but on reflection I hope that he might see that it would have been better starting another thread with his observations.
 
The whole thread should go, I’ve never seen so many moderator deleted posts in one thread. And this after the death of 3 people!

It was meant to be a tribute to a famous boater, sadly it’s descended into a tragic farce. Ric has the right to say what he did, but on reflection I hope that he might see that it would have been better starting another thread with his observations.
Well said LJS
 
The whole thread should go, I’ve never seen so many moderator deleted posts in one thread. And this after the death of 3 people!

It was meant to be a tribute to a famous boater, sadly it’s descended into a tragic farce. Ric has the right to say what he did, but on reflection I hope that he might see that it would have been better starting another thread with his observations.
I see it a bit differently, LJS.
As I said in post #25, this is the internet, and what happened is consistent with the nature of the beast, so to speak.
If we would have commented the departure of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, there would still have been some haters ready to highlight that she also made some mistakes, in her life...!
Otoh, if we use a bit of helicopter view, I think it's difficult to think of another thread with such an overwhelming majority of the contributors agreeing on the main topic - i.e., that FB and his achievements were already legendary even before his tragic departure.

And you are right when you say that Ric had the right to express his view. I even don't mind his choice to do so within this thread.
I believe it's just his wording that was inappropriate, and instigated some reactions - like when he asked "what was the objective of this ridiculous stunt in the first place?".
Now, it's obvious that such question comes across as provocative/offensive, but it might well be a genuine question from someone who simply doesn't have a clue.
I even thought for a moment to try to post a proper answer, but I honestly couldn't think where to start, because the list of the objectives that FB aimed at in his life (and more often than not achieved!) is endless.
And ironically, many of them were oriented to improve safety in boating.
In fact, I'm pretty sure that if he would have survived this accident, he would be already working on some ways to prevent it from happening again in the future, either with his boats or any others.

Bottom line, while I obviously agree that it's appropriate to delete silly and offensive posts (as it is in any other thread), I really hope that the whole thread will never be pulled.
In fact, I do believe that most of what has been said here was not only sincerely felt, but also, quite simply, true.
And as such, it's a small tribute well worth a place in this forum - much more than most other threads, anyway.
 
Last edited:
what Was the offensive word?
As soon as I saw your rhyming slang reply WL I knew the mods would take it down.
I honestly cannot understand what ever possessed you to post such a stupid comment.
I’ve never been a fan of you , reading a post like that tells me exactly why .
You need to grow up fast.
 
I see it a bit differently, LJS.
Me too. This thread is a tribute to a powerboat legend and should remain on the forum because of that. Maybe it should also serve as a reminder to all of us to behave ourselves as well
 
Top