Fabio Buzzi

Fabio Buzzi (28 January 1943 – 17 September 2019) was an Italian motorboat builder and racer.

Biography Fabio Buzzi was born in Lecco in 1943, from a family tied for centuries to the art of building and design.

His powerboat racing career started in 1960. He graduated in mechanical engineering in 1971 from the Polytechnic University of Turin, where he took a degree in mechanical engineering with a thesis on a self-constructed vehicle.

He built his first race boat in 1974, a three-point hydroplane called "Mostro" (Monster), the first boat ever built in Kevlar 49. He set a world speed record (176.676 km/h) with this boat in the class S4 in 1978.

On 17 September 2019, Buzzi, Luca Nicolini and Eric Hoorn were killed when their boat crashed against the San Nicoletto dam in Venice. Buzzi and his crew were attempting to establish a new Montecarlo to Venice record.

FB Design In 1971, Buzzi founded FB Design to build leisure, military and racing boats.

On board La Gran Argentina, a Fabio Buzzi-designed FB 55, Argentinian pilot Daniel Scioli was a three-time winner of the World Superboat USA Championship and captured 4 European titles. The boat's hull was modified in 2000 into a long-distance record setter. Scioli went on to set the Miami-Nassau-Miami record with an average speed of 100 mph.

Initially, the company's focus was on race boats. When offshore power boat racing declined in the late 1990s, the company used its experience in high-speed boat manufacturing to build military and fast patrol boats.

Death Fabio Buzzi, Luca Nicolini and Eric Hoorn Buzzi, 76, a ten-time powerboat champion, apparently misjudged how much space he had available for his boat to enter the lagoon, and instead hit barriers installed to prevent flooding in Venice, a crash not uncommon in the crowded waters there, where many visiting cruise ships, motorboats and yachts may not be aware of the presence of the safety barriers under water.

Pilot career 1960 First race (Pavia-Venice)

1963 First time Italian Champion (C.U. class)

1979 Speed World Record for diesel engines (191 Km/h)

1984 Offshore 3/6 lt class - UIM World Champion Round Britain Race winner

1988 Offshore class 1 - UIM World Champion Offshore class 1 - APBA World Champion

1992 Speed World Record for diesel engines (252 Km/h)

1994 Superboat - APBA World Champion Cannonball Race (Miami-New York No-Stop) winner

1995 Superboat - APBA World Champion A class - APBA World Champion Superboat - APBA American Champion

1996 Superboat - APBA World Champion B class - APBA World Champion

1997 A class - APBA World Champion

1999 Miami-Nassau-Miami Speed Record (87 kn average)

2001 Round Italy - Venice to Montecarlo at 20 Knots Montecarlo to London at 33 Knots Round Britain at 45 knots

2002 Winner of the Pavia-Venice Race at an average speed of 182 km/h.

2004 Winner of the Pavia-Venice Race at an average speed of 197 km/h.

2008 Cowes-Torquay-Cowes of 182 miles in 2h 18' 5' at an average speed of 91 mph.

2010 heat 1 "Cowes 100" of the UIM Marathon World Cup races.

2016 Montecarlo-Venice Speed record at the average speed in 22h 5' 43" at an average speed of 51.64 knots

2018 Diesel Powerboat World Speed record of 277.5km/h on Lake Como

2019 Montecarlo-Venice Speed record at the average speed in 18h 33' 30" at an average speed of 61.48 knots

Winning and trophies as boat designer 52 World Offshore Championships; 22 European Offshore Championships; 27 Italian Offshore Championships; 40 World Speed Records; 7 The Harmsworth Trophy (1989 - 1993–1994–1995 - 2003 - 2004 - 2010);