Riva is a sailing paradise
These words at the end of the Spring Time Regatta 2023 found the full agreement of the participants. After four years of absence – the last time we were in Riva was with our 2018 World Championship – 15 boats had registered, 13 of which were at the start.
Wind and weather were as you would expect from Riva: on each of the four competition days there was the south wind Ora with up to 5 Bft. in the afternoon – with mostly bright sun. Once we sailed a light wind run with a late north wind Perlér, soon after the Ora started again. It was four fantastic sailing days during which we sailed a total of 11 runs.
The organizer, Fraglia Vela Riva, welcomed us warmly and wanted to know if we would come again. The answer was not difficult – a clear yes! One feels in good hands with the Fraglia, everyone is friendly and it works.
So much for sailing and club. But Riva is more. It offers a lot after the regatta: excellent food, culture and wildly beautiful surroundings with a southern flair.
Somewhat old-fashioned but very appropriate was the description of the author Franz Kafka around 1900: “In Riva I was the guest of the South, which never again met me with such kindness and grandeur”. Many celebrities came to Riva at the turn of the century to cure their “neurasthemia”. This fashionable disease of the fin de siècle was a nervous ailment caused by the ” staggering progress ” of social life. People came to Riva to recuperate, which became the epitome of light and easiness (Source: Merian issue 6/2016)
Today, to cope with the staggering progress of social life, sailing in Riva is a proven way. Andreas Knittel from Austria, who has been sailing on Lake Garda since 1981, clearly describes in Yngling Magazine 2021 the 10 points why (Yngling) sailors should not miss a regatta on Lake Garda.
His conclusion: “Life doesn’t get any more enjoyable than this!”
Walter Baumgartner