Franco Pivoli

Franco Pivoli was an Italian skipper in the multihulls class. His international career started in 1967 and, alongside Cesare Biagi, he sailed on the IOR (International Offshore Rule) circuit in the early 1970s. In 1976, on Lake Ontario, he took part at the Olympic Games in the Tornado class, placing a disappointing eighth.

Pivoli missed a few years in which he was engaged with the Little America’s Cup and he had to give up a second Olympic participation in 1980 because his bowman, Alberto Gualandi, was prevented from traveling as a solider. From 1984-91 Pivoli worked for the Italian Sailing Federation training the Tornado team, and in 1991 finished first with Giorgio Zuccoli and was runner-up with brothers Walter and Marco Pirinoli at the World Championships in Cagliari, on Sardinia.

Pivoli also competed in oceanic trimaran races, aboard Innovation Explorer with Loick Peyron or Cotonella with Franco “Ciccio” Manzoli. In the 2000s he became an avid cruise traveler with his wife Livia, owner of Ulysses, a 1992 Grand Soleil 45.