The deatch of Renalo Moraglione
At the beginning of the 1978 racing season, during the opening round of the Italian Inboard Racing Championship, class R3N 2000 cc, at the Idroscalo in Milan, the serious problem of pilot safety once again became topical.
Unfortunately, shortly after the crowded R3N got off to a flying start, a tragic accident killed pilot Renato Moraglione.
It is practically impossible to tell the true dynamics of what happened, but among the many hypotheses formulated, it is thought that after the start, while tacking the turn at the first buoy, all twenty racers found themselves crowded together in a very narrow space and in the whirlwind of their wakes that made visibility precarious, Moraglione, realizing that he had started early (as did Ruggeri and Caimi), attempted, with a rather abrupt maneuver, to rejoin the group that was coming from the immediate rear. Probably, pushed by the considerable speed and perhaps disturbed by a freak wave, he was catapulted out of his hull and hit in succession by the other innocent competitors. Beyond the fatality and the risk that motorboating sport entails, I remember that during the pre-race meeting many pilots raised doubts about the decision taken to have all twenty boats present compete together; the previous year, on these very waters, an equivalent number of starters had in fact been divided into two heats.
The death of the pilot Moraglione shook the entire national motorboating environment and among the pilots of the R3N there was a certain nervousness.
Some of them, after the tragic initial race in Milan, gave up on continuing the season and consequently the number of participants suffered a rather noticeable drop. Talking about a real crisis may perhaps seem excessive, but certainly a moment of reflection.

Among the many proposals put forward by pilots and constructors, Guido Caimi stands out, who decides to install a special steel roll-bar on his racer to ensure better protection for the pilot in the event of possible lateral collisions with other boats.
The innovation, which does not go unnoticed by his colleagues, will also be adopted by Francesco Manfredini from Cremona the following year on the new three-pointer built by Carlo Popoli's shipyard.

The Italian R3N 2000 cc Championship, which this year includes six races (Milan-Idroscalo, Ranco, Sacca di Colorno, Boretto, Omegna, Syracuse) is won, for the second consecutive year, by Amleto Ruggeri who gets the better of fearsome and aggressive opponents such as Nicola Mora who, race after race, confirms that he is now among the best in the category, the returning Maurizio Caramelli who has a past as a "racers" and who is immediately a winner in this class too and over the die-hards Antonio Petrobelli and Guido Caimi.
Petrobelli, in this championship, abandons the classic racer with front engine and opts for a hull from the Celli shipyard that adopts a solution already tested in the past with mixed success by several famous manufacturers (in other inboard categories), that is with the engine mounted behind the driver, this three-pointer is very fast on calm waters, while on rough waters its balance is precarious to the point that during the last race of the Italian Championship, run in the marine waters of Porto Grande in Syracuse, Petrobelli is the victim of a capsize and suffers such physical damage that will keep him away from competitions for two years.


Renato Molinari European Champion R3 class
Towards the end of the season, during the great motorboat event called "Milanonda", valid for the Italian Grand Prix, among the many races on the program, the European Championship for Inboard Racing of the international free R3 2000 cc class is organized. This title, re-proposed in the calendar by the UIM, offers some interesting ideas as Renato Molinari is present in the water, with a new catamaran powered by a 270 HP Lancia Stratos six-cylinder V and prepared by the "great" Tino Brambilla. For the other pilots of the Italian team, Amleto Ruggeri, Franco Cantando and Francesco Manfredini, all competing with their racers powered by Alfa Romeo engines, the difficult task of managing to keep up with the powerful complex of the Como champion is announced.
Nicola Mora also brings a catamaran to the race for the first time (formerly owned by the Roman pilot Massimo Funaro) also built by the Molinari shipyard and powered by Alfa Romeo.
Mora who for the occasion abandons the three-points, unfortunately, despite the high potential of his new vehicle, exits the scene after the first heat.
Also at the start is the Swiss Luciano Belladelli, the only "foreigner" present who gives a vague sense of internationality to this Championship. Belladelli is driving a three-point hull of his own not recent construction with an Alfa Romeo engine positioned behind the driver's seat.
In the two initial tests, however, it is the racers of Ruggeri, in the first, and of Manfredini, in the second, who win with Molinari in his slipstream, slightly slowed down by mechanical problems.
In the remaining two heats, Molinari, having resolved the initial difficulties, manages to exploit all the power of the Lancia Stratos: its hull, already very fast on the straights, gains an additional advantage in the turns thanks to the particular shape of the hull. The European Title that Renato Molinari wins, preceding Manfredini and Cantando in the final classification, can be considered the first real sign that in the Entrobordo Corsa classes the racer is losing its predominance.
The Italian Championship of the Formula Fiat 128 is deservedly won by Remigio Telasio, validly challenged by Guido Comacchione and Adriano Muggiati.

Cross-country races
As regards the results obtained by our inboarders in cross-country races, I would like to highlight the great success of Ermes Prospero in the Due Ponti Trophy in Boretto Po. Prospero has the glorious racer already used validly in the sixties by Ermanno Marchisio, when the KD 900 Kg class was all the rage.
This racing car from the Timossi shipyard, now no longer powered by a Maserati, but by a BPM 8000 cc, is registered in the R°° class and allows the champion from Verona, after the forced withdrawals of the very fast Antonio Petrobelli and Renato Molinari, to win, also retouching the race record (164.106 km/h average against the 164.016 km/h of Petrobelli in the 1976 edition).
Also worthy of applause was the performance of Guido Caimi, who arrived in the overall standings just under three minutes behind the winner Prospero, driving his three-point Lucini e Frigerio-Alfa Romeo in the R3N 2000 cc class.

Concluding the discussion on cross-country races, it is obligatory to remember the two Lariane races.
In the Giro del Lario, Annibale Beltrami wrote his name in the roll of honor of the race, now in its eighth edition. Beltrami, although not improving the race record, held by Eugenio Molinari with 185.452 Km/h, brought the same Entrobordo Sport E.Molinari -BPM over 7000 cc, already triumphant in the Raid Pavia-Venezia in 1977, back to victory.

In Como, however, in the Centomiglia, Giuseppe Colnaghi with his Molinari-Mercruiser catamaran of the R°° class takes the lead. The Milanese champion adds this important achievement to his rich list of achievements.


Fabio Buzzi's diesel class record
To conclude, let's open a parenthesis dedicated to speed records and in particular those obtained with diesel engines. On 7-8 October 1978, on the measured base of Sabaudia, Fabio Buzzi manages to significantly improve Abbate's previous record, raising it to 165.588 km/h. The boat used by Buzzi for this record is a three-point self-built in his shipyard in Annone Brianza and obtained by printing a sandwich of Belcobalsa and Kevlar 49, an innovative Du Pont fiber, whose specific weight is almost half that of glass fabric. The boat without any accessories weighs 106 kg and has a rigidity at least four times higher than that of a boat with the same characteristics, but built in wood. The VM 692 HR 6-cylinder 3600 cc engine is supercharged with a KKK turbo compressor and is brought to a power of over 200 HP thanks to the development carried out by the preparer Romeo Ferraris. As proof that the VM diesel is certainly at the forefront of the sector, it must be said that Buzzi achieved the primacy with an engine with a displacement halved compared to Abbate's Aifo. The collaboration between Buzzi and the VM engine company, which began almost by chance at the Genoa boat show, has relaunched diesel into a new era since 1977.