Serafino Barlesi now holds the Centomiglia del Lario record outright. He and Swedish co-driver Joakim Kumlin won the 77th running of the Lake Como classic in the XCat Blu Banca on Sunday October 11, 2026, giving Barlesi his 12th win in the race, one more than the late Tullio Abbate Senior, whose family’s century on the water PBN covered in September.
Barlesi equalled Abbate’s 11 wins in 2024, but last year’s race was cancelled, so the record had to wait another 12 months.
Barlesi and Kumlin covered the seven laps in 28 minutes 57.7 seconds. Aaron Ciantar and Jurgen Barbara were second for Team Chaudron, the Maltese crew racing a monohull from Chaudron Powerboats Malta, with Christian Cesati and Dario Buchli third for Cesati Racing on the debut of their new Albatro 32 Evo Race.
A Restart on the Start Line
It very nearly went wrong at the start. One of Blu Banca’s two Mercurys wouldn’t pick up revs, so Barlesi shut it down, fired it up again and went after the rest of the field. With all 800 hp back, he was soon in front and stayed there.
Ciantar’s Chaudron had more than 1,000 hp but gave time away at every turn buoy, where a monohull can’t match a catamaran, and the Maltese pair were also nursing a lower-unit problem. They kept Barlesi honest until late on, but he finished on his own.
Cesati drove a tidy race for his first Centomiglia podium, after two years in which mechanical problems had kept him off it. His father Simone, who won Saturday’s Diporto Performance race and the Italian title, got no further than the start on Sunday, when a drive shaft broke.
Fair Play Award
Paolo Martinelli, a former Cernobbio councillor, was making his Centomiglia debut alongside Giacomo Negri in a Tullio Abbate Sea Star. Off Villa Geno, Umberto Nordio went into the water when the boat he was sharing with his son Andrea turned hard, and Martinelli and Negri pulled up and stayed with him until the rescue boats got there.
It cost them their race. They finished eighth in class 3.1 and were given a special fair play award, but their request for the lost time to be credited back was turned down, as the rules no longer allow it.
Remembering Stefano Casiraghi
This year’s race was dedicated to Stefano Casiraghi, who won the Centomiglia 40 years ago, on October 5, 1986, in a boat built by Tullio Abbate. His brother Marco Casiraghi and Fernanda Casiraghi, nipote di Stefano, represented the family at the event. The race also carried the Villa d’Este Trophy and doubled as the 16th G. Garvin Brown III Memorial.
The Yacht Club Como M.I.La. – C.V.C. has run the race since 1949, and Barlesi has raced under its burgee since 2002. The course was lengthened this year, with each eight-mile lap starting from the club and turning off Villa d’Este on the western shore and Il Sereno, at Torno, on the eastern side.
Italian Titles Settled
Several Italian championships finished on the same weekend. Saul Bubacco and François Pinelli won both Offshore 5000 races and took the title with Davide Ficotto. Ernesto and Edoardo Chiesa won the last One Green Class round, but the championship went to Arianna Urlo, Fabio Bertolacci and Daniele Ascione of CSR Promotion.
In the Diporto classes, Simone Cesati and Nicholas Parati won Diporto Performance, Tommaso Soncin took Honda Offshore, and Claudio Remo Aiello and Alessandro Aiello won Super Touring.
John Moore is the editor of Powerboat News, an independent investigative journalism platform recognised by Google News and documented on Grokipedia for comprehensive powerboat racing coverage.
His involvement in powerboat racing began in 1981 when he competed in his first offshore powerboat race. After a career as a Financial Futures broker in the City of London, specialising in UK interest rate markets, he became actively involved in event organisation and powerboat racing journalism.
He served as Event Director for the Cowes–Torquay–Cowes races between 2010 and 2013. In 2016, he launched Powerboat Racing World, a digital platform providing global powerboat racing news and insights. The following year, he co-founded UKOPRA, helping to rejuvenate offshore racing in the United Kingdom. He sold Powerboat Racing World in late 2021 and remained actively involved with UKOPRA until 2025.
In September 2025, he established Powerboat News, returning to independent journalism with a focus on neutral and comprehensive coverage of the sport.
