Trofeo Rizzotti
Team Racing in Venice 11-14 May
Twenty teams from 13 countries participated in the first of the season's big team racing regattas.
Three days of ideal conditions on Venice lagoon enabled completion of the ambitious programme of double round robins followed by semi finals and finals within each group of four teams. Final rankings were as follows:

Gold Silver
Italy Spain
Slovenia Garda
USA - New York Friuli Venezia
Emilia Romagna Turkey
Croatia 1 Veneto
Lombardy Switzerland
USA - New Orleans Hungary
Germany Ireland
Croatia 2 Israel
Japan Serbia

In the absence of last year's winners Poland, the Italian national team had few problems in winning all their matches. USA New York won their first round pool with nine victories but two later defeats by Slovenia relegated them to third place. The Castorama Cup for Italian provincial teams was won for the first time by Emilia-Romagna.

The Trofeo Rizzotti, a memorial to Marco Rizzotti, is run by his son Pier-Bruno and top umpire Giorgio Lauro under the prestigious burgees of the two major yacht clubs of Venice.