40 YEARS OF SAILING STORIES Paolo Villaggio “Fantozzi on a Sailboat.”

At the Boat Show with accountant Ugo Fantozzi as a sailor, for an outing on a drift, among polar bears, bumblebees and other tragicomic adventures. From the pen of Paolo Villaggio in the company of his famous character

“Saturday 2 p.m., Boat Show Outer Marina, sailboat booth… The salesman immediately loaded him onto a Flying Junior and in front of the chilly crowd of visitors began the demonstration. “Here,” he said, “is a kind volunteer who has volunteered for the very difficult sea trial.” And he detached the moorings. The sailboat departed. There was a strong polar wind, the sea temperature was such that there were many white bears screaming with cold on ice floes. He stood up from the back. The demonstrator held out his hand, saying, “Bravo you are a brave man!” Fantozzi made a movement to shake the hand reaching out to him but slipped suddenly and struck his right shin with terrifying violence against a sharp brass edge. He fainted. The demonstrator revived him with a shot of Bolivian brandy called “Infierno de Fiama.” He went up with his head suddenly screaming and was hit in the nose by a mainsail shot that reduced him to a mask of blood. He crashed his incisors into an iron fender while gritting 32 his teeth. He got back up as the demonstrator shouted, “Attention, now tacking aboard, watch your head.”

He was struck in the back of the head by a second monstrous mainsail shot that this time caught him from behind and flung him onto the polar ice floe. He was left in his shirt and underwear in the accident.

He had also lost his iron shoes. He dragged himself ashore, half walking on the pack and half swimming chased by white bears. He was pulled up by another booth attendant who applauded him and said, “Well done, that’s who’s going to buy a nice boat!” He signed in front of an amused crowd 200 million promissory notes also in the company’s name. He had bought the “Princess Ann,” an old English hospital ship from 1901.”

WHO IS PAOLO VILLAGGIO

Paolo Villaggio, writer and actor, was born in Genoa and knows the Genoa Boat Show well. In this excerpt published in 1978 from his book “The Second Tragic Fantozzi,” he tells of an astonishing adventure with a Flying Junior. Villaggio actually went boating as a young man, but by motorboat.

DISCOVER THE “STORIES OF 40 YEARS OF SAILING”