This is how Flavio Favini found (and revived) his father’s boat on which he learned as a child

There is a beautiful story of sailing, lake and family that we want to tell you: that of a great Italian sailor (Flavio Favini) who finds-and brings back to life-the boat his father built in 1964: the first sailboat he got on as a child.

Flavio Favini, Papa Lino, the Snipe Frugolino

We are in Luino (Varese), on Lake Maggiore, where the Ezio Braga Trophy “2”, a national regatta of the Snipe class (the legendary “Snipe”: 4.72 m dinghies designed in 1931 and now widespread all over the world), is scheduled for May 3-4: among the participants, there will be Flavio Favini, the protagonist of our story: he will race on his boat, “Frugolino,” which his father Lino, a strong sailor on Star and Snipe, built – rocambulously, we will discover – in the early 1960s.

Flavio Favini’s first sailboat

“It’s probably the first sailboat I set foot on as a child,” says Luinese Favini, who, at 62, is one of Italy’s most accomplished sailors. His resume includes many years in Olympic classes, victory at theAdmirals’ Cup ’95 at the helm of Capricorn, various successes with Minitonner, J22, Quarter Tonner, 6-meter SI, Mumm 30, Ims, Farr 40 and Melges 24. He has won dozens of world, European, and Italian titles and participated in America’s Cup campaigns (in 2003 and 2007) with Mascalzone Latino as tactician and helmsman(his story here).

“Frugolino – the name of the boat is derived from the main character of a comic strip from the 1950s-60s – is part of a series of three Snipes that my father built together with a skilled carpenter. It was the one he built for himself and with which he participated in regattas such as the legendary September International Weeks that drew strong sailors to the lake from all over the world.”

Story of a “copied” boat

And galley, for the birth of the Snipe Frugolino, was the 1964 edition of the International Week. “My father never revealed this to me, but I learned about it from his friends. At that time there was a formidable builder of Beccaccini as well as a very strong sailor: his name was Danilo D’Isiot and his boats went faster than the others. During International Week Dad, aided by a ‘hole gang’ of his friends, sneaked onto the beach in Luino at night, spotted D’Isiot’s boat, turned it upside down, took measurements and marked the shape of the hull with cardboard templates! Let’s say it was a boat very much ‘inspired’ by D’Isiot’s masterpieces. (laughs, ed.)….”

The recovery of the Frugolino

The young Flavio Favini, who had taken his first steps on board with his father Lino, soon broke away from the Snipe to devote himself tout-court and with great success to other dinghies, such as the Laser (now ILCA, ed.): of the Frugolino no one knew anything more.

Until a friend of Lino’s, Luigi Ferrario, found the boat in an abandoned state and decided to give it to Favini Jr. “It was abandoned, almost as if it were in a garbage dump. The condition was very bad “, Flavio recounts.“Wood and lake water don’t get along well, a wooden boat deteriorates much more easily than at sea, where the salt somewhat protects them.”

So, aided by his sailor friend Aldo Bottagisio, owner of Cantiere del Verbano, he decided to refit his father’s boat.“It was a long job of carpentry and extensive refitting, but in the end we didit.”

A great boat

Favini, now a sailed and talented sailor and a man who “feels boats,” quickly realized how the Snipe built by his father was a good boat.

“It is a fun and technical drift boat-I use it as soon as I can, even with my children and grandchildren. The Snipe is a perfect basic boat. If you learn to go well on it, you can go well on any boat. It is no coincidence that the Snipe class is one of the most popular in the world “.

All that remains for Flavio Favini now is to win the Braga Trophy (forgive us if we “owl” him!) with his father Lino’s boat to best conclude this – already beautiful – sailing, lake, family story.

Eugene Ruocco