Luigi Carpaneda, a keen offshore sailor known to many in Italy and beyond, died last week in an auto accident in his home of Milan. He had a very busy life that included several aspects, and in all he's been respected and is now missed and remembered.

Luigi as a teen-ager was one of the few survivors of the Russian retreat with the Alpini corps, and later ascended to the Olympic podium several times, including winning a Gold Medal in 1956 and a Silver Medal in 1960 in Fencing, all the while continuing his studies that led later to a brilliant career as a civil engineer and entrepreneur. His lifetime friend and team mate Edoardo Mangiarotti, 92, commented on his fencing success being due to his ‘Botta Dritta’ move, a name Luigi took for his boats.

His sailing career developed in the late 1970’s in the flourishing times of IOR, and he commissioned a sequence of boats called "Botta Dritta" in those years.

First there was a custom 3/4 tonner designed by Andrea Vallicelli & Co. and built by Gallinari. In 1980 he had a Polaris 37 designed by Holland to compete in the One Ton Cup in Naples, but he did not get to the podium. The peak of his career as an owner was the success in the 3/4 Ton Cup in Trieste in 1983 with I-9710, a one-off boat designed by Claudio Maletto with a mixed but all-Italian crew.

Later he abandoned his top level sailing career as an owner but continued as a Team Captain for several Admiral's Cups, and being a long time member of the Commissione Altomare (Offshore Committee) of FIV.

He raced also on many classic boats, such as the Smeralda 888 of which he was one of the promoters and initial owners, and the Holland-designed Gallinari built with the interiors designed by Quelle, the Architect who designed most of Porto Cervo initial urbanization. With this last Botta Dritta he won overall the race organized by YC Costa Smeralda for their 40th Anniversary in 2007.

With his attitude to the understatement, his ironical approach and some kind of eccentricity he liked very much to indulge in, he's been a true example in life for those who had the chance to meet him in person and interact with him.