in Memoriam: Lallo Petrucci

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This past weekend one of the Catamaran Racing driving forces for many years passed away. Lallo Petrucci.

Many of our Europeans friends like PJ Dwarhuis and Arno Terra started sailing A-Cats on a Bimare, surely plenty others on his Tornados, some of them even followed his building legacy and went their own racing cat project as PJ & Arno did with the DNA, or Nils Bunkenburg, after sailing Bimares went to built his Nikita A-Cat. Martin Fischer and Manuel Vaccari (Oxxo Sails) were near Lallo / Bimare. Randy Smith raced a Bimare A, and the list goes on.

There you see how Lallo influenced big time in the Catamaran Racing scene and all who knew him remember his great work.

In this life one has to take advantage of the very gift of being alive, and strive to fulfill and honor that great chance we were given. Once you are gone you can only leave a family behind or a mark on the deeds you pursued. Just trying to achieve those goals is mission accomplished no doubt, but if one can complete some of them, well, you will definitely leave your stamp, and Lallo Petrucci did.

Lallo Petrucci delivered and left a huge mark on the work he did, also a family who continued his legacy like Valerio and Michele who contributed in the design and build process of the Bimare line like several A-Cats, 18HT, F16 X , F18 X4, Tornado… Platforms covering the entire range of Catamaran Racing offer, plus new projects going forward like Michele’s S9 and renewed carbon masts which Bimare were about the first to build.

Both should be proud of his father legacy, we all are.

– For a more complete detail of Lallo & Bimare work see Saily.it interview from 2016: archivio.saily.it/it/article/lallo-petrucci-e-la-storia-bimare

– Trophy held in his name back in 2018 catsailingnews.com/2018/08/tribute-trophy-to-recognize-lallo.html

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Below some words by Arno Tera and PJ Dwarshuis who started sailing A-Cats in Lallo’s Bimares:

Lallo Petrucci (1941-2023)

This Friday, September 1st, Lallo passed away. 

A remarkable man with great personality. He will be missed by his friends, the catsailing community and especially by his wife Daniela and his sons Valerio and Michele. My thoughts are with them.

His ashes will be given to his beloved Mare Adriatico.

Lallo founded Bimare which was not just a boatbuilding company. He was a businessman, a  designer, a boatbuilder, a sailmaker and a mast builder. 

My first A-class was a Bim (1984) and I sailed many of his designs (Bim, Bim 2000, Javelin). 

He won the A-class Worlds with the brothers Albert en Egidio Babbi and many many national championships.

Lallo was most known for his A-Cat designs and definitely is a true A-class legend.

He did build several other catamarans as well; e.g. a Bimare Tornado and several other two man boats as well; Javelin 2, F18 HT

Due to his efforts which started in the early eighties A-class grew as a international catamaran class especially in Europe.

Every time we were in Cesenatico for either the Vele di Pasqua or a championship we visited his factory in Bellaria. A real neat factory, extremely well organised. 

Lallo had his strong opinions but it was always a pleasure to meet the man and discuss about developments in A-class or the Italian economy. 

Rest in peace, Lallo. we will remember you. 

The real Mr A-Cat passed away

I always had huge respect for him.

Really enjoyed the days of sailing the Bimare boats with Arno Terra in the 90’s going to races all over Europe .

After building the DNA boats for over ten years , I more and more realize how unique his Bimare factory was in Cesenatico for many years…

He built a few thousand A cats in those days. Really an achievement!

Rest in peace Lallo

PJ