Giuseppe Todeschini and the magnificent World hat trick
It often happens that those who win too much in sports create boredom and envy. This is probably the case of Giuseppe Todeschini.
Tullio Abbate and Claudio Giovio, after the endless controversies of the previous world championships where the first was disqualified for hitting the buoy (in 1981) and the second for early start (in 1982), decided to boycott the Cariate race that awards the title of the current year.
The list of participants includes, in addition to the reigning champion, Annibale Beltrami with his Eugenio Molinari hull, Giovanni Cima with the classic Timossi and Pietro Cesana with a very beautiful Lucini to look at that shows an original rainbow-colored livery: it is a recently built hull already used without much glory by Bruno Locatelli.
These pilots use BPM 8-cylinder 8000 cc engines, while Todeschini uses, on his winning catamaran R.Molinari slightly modified, a BPM 12-cylinder 12,000 cc Carlo Bodega, on the other catamaran also built by Renato Molinari, proposes the Chevrolet biturbo prepared by Gale Banks; a complex capable of unloading a power of almost 900 HP into the water, about fifty more than Todeschini's aspirated engine.
Also in the game are the usual Swiss Ulrich and Hoffmann, as always the only foreigners present in the R°° class and both with the same hulls already seen in previous editions of the championship. Todeschini's supremacy is clear; the driver from Lecco wins all four heats, reconfirming himself as World Champion for the third consecutive time and relegating, in the final classification, Giovanni Cima to second position and the Swiss Joseph Ulrich to third.
This victory also puts an end to the excessive insinuations that wanted him to win in 1981 and 1982 more by the help of Lady Luck than by his own merits. Instead, it must be admitted that this driver has always shown great professionalism in putting highly prepared boats into the water and in managing race situations to his advantage.
On the other hand, this championship has certainly not been positive for Carlo Bodega who suffered the breakage of two propeller blades in the first heat (and here we can clearly speak of bad luck) and ran into a buoy in the second. After this episode he no longer lined up in the remaining races. Even Annibale Beltrami who complains of trim problems, decides to give up definitively after the unpromising fifth place in the first heat.
Disappointing once again the hull of Cesana which reveals big problems both in tacking and on the straight; he was also the victim of a collision at the buoy with the Swiss Paul Hoffmann, who, following a tear in his boot, was forced to abandon the race right from the first leg.
Giuseppe Todeschini's career, in addition to the three R°° World Titles, includes other prestigious achievements: he entered his name five times, four of which were consecutive (1981-1984), in the roll of honour of the Centomiglia del Lario, a race previously won by great names in motorboating such as Guido and Tullio Abbate, Renato Molinari and Giuseppe Colnaghi.

The World Championship of the Inboard Corsa R1 1000 cc held in Taranto, turns out to be a "flop"; in addition to the withdrawal of foreign competitors (evidently the 1982 world championship in Lignano has left its mark), there is also the reduced presence of Italian pilots: Pier Luigi Brigada, Luciano Racconi and the "local idol" Pasquale Ariante (all driving Clerici catamarans powered by Selva).
Brigada deservedly wins, winning three heats, overcoming the tough resistance of Ariante and the surprising Racconi. Despite the commitment and professionalism of the pilots present, it is difficult to give credibility and legitimize a race like this: the UIM, in fact, given the poor content, decides not to reassign the title starting in 1984.


Ettore Cagnani world champion R3 class
The World Championship of the Inboard Corsa R3 2000 cc is also taking place on the same wavelength, organized, as in 1981, in Marta on the waters of Lake Bolsena. Competing for the title are five Italians, all aboard catamarans.
Three of these, built by Renato Molinari and powered by Evinrude with relative stern drive, are brought to the race by the pilots: Claudio Marsi, Roberto Savioli and the debutant Ettore Cagnani (Formula 1 In-Shore pilot and former Italian Champion of the Outboard Racing OA 250, OB 350, ON 2000 classes) who on this occasion takes over the hull of Stefano Signoretti, unable to participate. The line-up is completed by Franco Clerici who is rightly included in the national team and who is presenting his catamaran powered by Mercury and Francesco Manfredini, returning to competition after a sabbatical year.
Manfredini is also the only competitor who faithfully remains tied to tradition and uses engines derived from the automotive industry. Its hull, in fact, initially built for the Formula 2 ln-Shore cd used by Pier Luigi Bonvicini in 1982 in some trials of the World Championship (Trofeo FONDA) is now transformed into an inboard and, depending on the competition (R3N or R3), is fitted with Alfa Romeo and BMW engines.
In Marta, for the world championship, Manfredini chooses to use the BMW and this fact, in an environment where now only outboard-derived engines are seen, the complex of the driver from Cremona arouses much interest.
The ingenious Parma preparers Zoni and Speroni, curators of the mechanics of the hull, have, for the occasion, experimented with some interesting technical innovations that have been noted and thus described by the engineer. Aldo Martinetto in the prestigious nautical magazine "Vela e Motore": "... the engine that is installed is dry sump and, instead of being fixed permanently to the base, it is hinged and tilting. Its inclination is controlled by the pilot by means of two hydraulic pistons.The engine is coupled by a joint to the stern drive which remains integral with the engine and not with the hull. The presence of the drive with the gears allows the engine to be kept in the same orientation as on the original vehicle and therefore the flywheel towards the stern. This cannot be done on rigid and direct shaft inboards, because to reverse the direction of rotation (clockwise is necessary, having to turn only to the left, to exploit the torque of the propeller) you are forced to turn the engine. The dry sump was necessary, because the engine trim is variable, but at the same time it allowed its placement very low, with the result of greatly improving the position of the center of gravity and the aerodynamics of the fairing..."

Unfortunately, however, at the Marta world championship, Manfredini was forced to retire; as often happens, also in this case, the innovations adopted on the Cremonese pilot's hull needed "running in". The race was dominated by the boats of Cagnani and Clerici, who relegated the other competitors to fight for the backup positions. Savioli, Marsi and Manfredini complained in turn about a series of mechanical problems that compromised their reliability. At the end of the four heats, the Milanese pilot won the title, preceding Clerici in the final classification, winner of only one heat, Marsi, Savioli and Manfredini who found himself without a score having been the victim of irreparable mechanical problems since the first race.
Cagnani, with the "World Championship" in his pocket and a twenty-year career, decided to abandon motorboating.


National Titles and long-distance races
In the Italian Championship of Inboard Racing of the R3N 2000 cc, once again the racers prevailed in the comparison with the catamarans (among which, in addition to the aforementioned hull of Manfredini, Mario Pecci also lined up with a new vessel built by Renato Molinari), conquering, in the final classification, the first three positions with Remigio Telasio, Adriano Muggiati and Virgilio Molinari. Telasio led the former three-point Lucini and Frigerio-Alfa Romeo of Guido Caimi to success.

In the R1 1000 cc class, the Italian title was won by Luciano Racconi from Como who managed to win after a fierce duel with Pier Luigi Brigada from Pavia. Both were racing two catamarans from the Franco Clerici shipyard powered by Selva.

Unfortunately, it should be noted that the number of participants in the Italian Championship is rather small for both the R3N and R1 classes.

As regards the victories of inboard boats in the main long-distance races, those achieved by Antonio Petrobelli and his Celli-BPM of the R°° class at the 15th Trofeo Due Ponti in Boretto and at the first edition of the 100 Km. del Po in S.Nazzaro d'Ongina are certainly noteworthy. These races have in common the length of the course: 20 km of development to be covered five times. Petrobelli won in both, always achieving excellent averages: in the Boretto race he recorded over 177 km/h, detaching the Swiss Joseph Ulrich and Telasio, and in San Nazzaro he won with 178.988 km/h (and one lap at over 180 km/h), dominating his opponents, including the ever-fearsome Annibale Beltrami. Unfortunately this successful 100 km was marred by the serious accident that occurred to the Milanese driver Roberto Savioli who performed a terrible looping with his fast inboard catamaran Renato Molinari-Mercury of the R3 2000 cc class and suffered fractures to his femur and collarbone.

To close the S.Nazzaro discussion I would also like to spend a few words to highlight the good performance of the racer Remigio Telasio who, confirming his excellent form, ranked third overall (first of the 2000 cc inboard racers) engaging with Giulio Ricci in a thrilling challenge. The two pilots, aboard their three-pointers Lucini and Frigerio-Alla Romeo remained glued to each other for the entire race and crossed the finish line separated by a few meters. Towards the end of the year, Franco Migliavacca from Pavia, known in the sports environment more as a preparer of engines for the inboard classes than for his rare appearances in competition, was the victim of a tragic accident while testing on the Ticino river a hull equipped with the experimental HBM engine that he himself designed and built. Among the various news that are chasing each other, it seems that Migliavacca was not wearing a helmet and life jacket and perhaps this is the reason why his body never resurfaced, giving rise to various suppositions in the environment, even the most absurd. The Racing Team Corse Franco Migliavacca included several first-rate drivers including Ruggeri, Caramelli, Prospero and Muggiati.


The challenge of Renato Molinari brought to the American Unlimited
1983 must also be remembered for the exciting challenge brought to the American homologation by our champion Renato Molinari.
In fact, he, fresh from winning yet another F. 1 In-Shore World Title, prepares a special catamaran powered by two 3500 cc Evinrude outboard engines and goes to Houston for the APBA Unlimited World Championship.
Our pilot's intention is to compare the possibilities of his light hull against the enormous inboard engines of the American specialists, powered by 16,000 / 18,000 cc Rolls-Royce engines and capable of reaching speeds of almost 250 km/h.
Thanks to his immense class, Molinari manages to do well, reaching the semi-finals after the various elimination heats. He does not qualify for the final but thanks to the forfeit of another competitor he is fished out for the final six where with a high-level performance he conquers an excellent third place overall.

For the record, the average speed of the winner, the American Irwin Miller, is 240 km/h.