The loved garment of Paolo Rizzi

Currently on display, the T-shirt worn by skipper Paolo Rizzi during the shipwreck of May 1993 in the Atlantic Ocean.

Remembered as one of the most adventurous episodes in the history of Italian sailing, the shipwreck of Paolo Rizzi and his boat “Vento Fresco II” remains an enduring example of courage, resilience, and determination.

Mr Rizzi skipper from Trieste,  was thirty-three years old at the time, with 13 Atlantic crossings already under his belt. In May 1993, he found himself at the mercy of a four-day storm in the Atlantic. His boat, a past winner of the Barcolana regatta, was overturned by 20-meter waves, forcing Rizzi and his companion, Andrea Pribaz, to seek refuge on a life raft.

“Swimming like a madman,” Rizzi recalls, “I reached a line and managed to climb back onto the boat.” But the boat was no longer navigable. The only possible decision was to take shelter on the inflatable life raft, but not before retrieving some provisions, water, a radio, and instruments to calculate their position. Surrounded by a raging sea and sharks, Rizzi and Pribaz remained on the raft for a week. Despite the extreme weather conditions, they managed to send out an emergency signal that was picked up by a French airliner, initiating a complex rescue operation.

The T-shirt worn by Paolo Rizzi throughout this incredible ordeal carries a prophetic message: on the back, it features the title of an Allman Brothers song, “Stormy Monday.” On Tuesday, May 11th, with the sea already in turmoil and sensing what was about to happen, Rizzi communicated his position to a radio amateur. The 20-meter wave that capsized the boat, tearing through the cabin, struck on Wednesday, May 12th: “They call it Stormy Monday / But Tuesday’s just as bad / Lord, and Wednesday’s worse.”

A T-shirt that bears witness to Paolo Rizzi’s love for life and the sea: following the shipwreck he was already thinking about the new boat, “Vento Fresco III”.