Word: venezia
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...state police about spouses running off with their paychecks and parents unable to feed their children. Troopers raided a VFW post and, with the help of the FBI and the IRS, eventually uncovered a gambling empire that over six years produced $48 million for Belleville wheeler-dealer Thomas Venezia. It worked like this: tavern owners paid out real winnings to the video-poker players. The profits were split 50-50 between Venezia and his tavern-owning partners. In the course of the investigation, 27 taverns were raided. Venezia was convicted of racketeering and sentenced to 15 years in prison...
What a difference a year makes: Gardini reached the peak of his fame only last spring, when his racing yacht, Il Moro di Venezia, defied sailing experts and reached the finals in the America's Cup. Il Moro's success cast Gardini as the personification of Italian style, an image especially sweet for a man whose childhood on a farm in Ravenna earned him the lifelong nickname "il contadino," the peasant...
...contending vessels in 1989, technology became more important than ever as teams scrambled to build a qualifying boat that would respect the rules and still win races. New technology doesn't come cheap. The two boats competing in the finals -- America 3 from the U.S. and Il Moro di Venezia from Italy -- have together devoured $160 million in development costs. The millionaires funding these efforts, American energy entrepreneur William Koch and Italian businessman Raul Gardini, are hoping their largesse will pay off in the best-of-seven finals that began last weekend...
...hull design is done with model boats in water tanks. Computers can monitor the various ways in which the boat interacts with the water and help designers build prototypes based on the results. The Italians ran scores of tests in a 400-m (437-yd.) tank to fashion the Venezia's hull. America 3's designers did their research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University to come up with a longer, narrow-bowed hull, meant to slice through the choppy seas expected at San Diego...
Once all these features come together in the form of a full-size boat, the designer's job is just beginning. Prototypes are built, tested, stripped down and used to build better prototypes. Even the finished model is never left alone. Both the Venezia and the America 3 were overhauled yet again before the finals began. The U.S. boat's keel, fin and rudder were removed and adjusted for the calmer weather that has been prevailing around San Diego. "We recognized that we were a bit susceptible in those conditions," says Phil Kaiko, one of the boat's designers...