While defending his World Offshore Championship title, Stefano Casiraghi lost his life in a racing accident which happened during the Grand Prix de Monte-Carlo, held off Monaco on the Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, Alpes-Maritimes department, boat course on Wednesday, 03 October 1990.
About 15 minutes after the start of the second heat, the leading group turned the buoy off Nice. Casiraghi was battling for the lead with the Bagutta-Lamborghini driven by Steve Curtis-Vincenzo Polli and the AchilliMotors of Domenico Achilli-Alessandro Brombini. His 42-foot catamaran Buzzi-Seatek named "Pinot di Pinot" for a brand of its sponsor, the Italian winemaker Gancia, struck a wave at more than 150 km/h (93 mi/h) and flipped backward.
In the accident the throttleman Patrice Innocenti was thrown off the boat while Casiraghi who sustained massive neck injuries, remained trapped in his cockpit. Both men were pulled from the water by the emergency crews and taken to Princess Grace Hospital in Monte-Carlo. Stefano Casiraghi was pronounced dead on arrival, while Innocenti being treated for injuries.
After the tragedy, the organizers canceled the remainder of the day's events. There was no title awarded in 1990, as a mark of respect following the death of Stefano Casiraghi.
An Italian citizen, originally from Milan, Stefano Casiraghi raced with a Principauté de Monaco licence. Known as an avid sportsman, he began his speedboat racing career in 1984 and won 12 of the 80 races he started, including the 1986 "Centomiglia del Lario" held at Como Lake, driving a boat built by the Tullio Abbate shipyards and fitted with a 12-litre Lamborghini engine, and the 1989 World Championship held off Atlantic City, New Jersey, United States, in a FB Design-built Buzzi-Seatek monohull, with Romeo Ferraris as co-driver.
Throughout his whole racing career, Stefano Casiraghi shared his interest between powerboat racing and great raids. In 1985 he took part in the Paris-Dakar Rally, sharing a truck Astra BM309 with his wife Princess Caroline and Giancarlo Arcangioli. The team did not finish the rally due to an accident which happened in territory of Algeria.
In September, 1990, Casiraghi's speedboat exploded during a race off the Isle of Guernsey, though he was not injured in the accident. It happened just three weeks before his fatal crash.
Stefano Casiraghi was survived by his wife, Princess Caroline Grimaldi of Monaco; his two sons, Andrea Albert Pierre, aged 6, and Pierre Rainier Stefano, 3, and one daughter, Charlotte Marie Pomeline, 4; his parents, Giancarlo and Fernanda (née Biffi) Casiraghi; his brother, Daniele. He is remembered at the Tempio Sacrario Sports Nautici, a memorial for those lost in nautical accidents, located in Como, Italy.
R.I.P
