Campionato Del Mondo Classe 350 1988

[epugh66]

Found some more stuff in some junk boxes the other day. In 1988, the 350cc WC was held in Milan at the Irdroscalo park. Many countries were there, I think it was one of the first years that the Chinese competed internationally.

This page shows the over all results. Gary placed ninth out of 24 boats that scored points. That means, there were actually more than 24 boats on the course at one time. Some would go all weekend and never score a point. Ralph can tell how hard it is to score a point. Surprising to me is Andrei Berntzine of the USSR placed 22nd. After I show you a pic of the boat he used, you might understand. That is, if I can find a pic.

[epugh66]

Here are the results of heat two. This shows the drivers and the different nationalities.

[epugh66]

This is a pic of me looking over the Bernitzin boat reeeal early in the morning.

[epugh66]

This is the same boat(?) earlier in the season at another event. I guess the UIM disallowed the wing. I found this pic on the web, so it aint mine.

[corin_huke]

This is the same boat(?) earlier in the season at another event. I guess the UIM disallowed the wing. I found this pic on the web, so it aint mine.

Eric - I don't think the wing was outlawed, as it was subsequently run - see photo from the World 0-500 in Kiruna, Sweden. Not quite sure what determined if they ran the wing or not - may be for 0-500 they did and for 0-350 they didn't. For the World 0-350 you talk about in Milan, if my memory serves me right, it was the first time this style of boat was seen outside of the USSR and it just had in effect outriggers rather than the full blown wing

For us it was a bit of a novelty to see the boat race - it was okay on a straight line, but struggled like hell in the turns - could only handle wide sweeping turns

I subsequently (jokingly) asked Sergei Atamanov, one of the guys who was involved in the whole Russian trimaran boat design project, what on earth they were thinking about when they came up with the Wing Boat design. In a very serious reply, he said "believe me, given time that would have worked!". Problem was, what with the fall of the Iron curtain, money and resources were cut overnight and the design was not progressed

Actually, the boat is currently residing in Italy

Photo - Åke Dickfors