Riva Boats for Sale

Riva

Storms have always played a fundamental role in Riva's history: from the first commissions received by shipyard founder Pietro to the later "storming of the Riva boats" by stars, starlets and VIPs – who in turn were captivated by the legendary Italian nonchalance of the Riva runabouts.

There are powerboats, and then there are Riva boats. The legendary, timelessly beautiful mahogany planing boats from the Italian yard on Lake Iseo are still regarded as the finest that the by no means small scene of open sport boats, or runabouts, has to offer.

There are various legends about the origins of the Riva yard. They all have one thing in common, though: storms are always involved. Some are certain that in 1842, after a thunderstorm on Lake Iseo, yard founder Pietro repaired most of the badly damaged fishing boats with such dedication and craftsmanship that he could barely keep up with the orders that followed. Others swear that after that same storm Pietro was called away from his home waters on Lake Como to Lake Iseo, where, in what seemed little short of a miracle, he got the entire fishing fleet back into shape in next to no time, thereby saving the trade of the inland fisherman in Italy from ruin.

In the beginning there was the storm …

Be that as it may – without the slightest inkling of what he was starting, Pietro Riva founded a yard whose successes grew more significant with every Riva generation, and which would ultimately shape the powerboat scene like hardly any other yard.

Pietro's sons Ernesto and Serafino worked in the family business as well. Blessed with plenty of talent and great manual skill, they above all revolutionized the wood-bending techniques used for hull planking. After the deaths of his father and brother, Serafino took over the running of the yard and turned his back on the previous core business of building transport and fishing boats. With an unerring nose for new trends on the boat marketplace of the day, Serafino focused exclusively on building leisure boats. In the early 20th century these became considerably faster thanks to steadily improving engine technology, and what had been the occasional boat race turned into a genuine craze in Europe and the USA.
After the First World War, aircraft engines were also fitted into racing boats – the more punch under the hood, the more sought-after the sport and racing boats were. For these early powerboats Serafino developed hull designs that made Riva boats run far more smoothly at top speeds than comparable racing boats. Serafino was also personally passionate about racing, collecting trophies the way other people collect stamps and making the brand known well beyond the racing scene. Yet the yard's most successful times were still to come.

… then came the rush for Riva boats

After 42 highly successful years, Serafino handed the yard over to his son Carlo, who in turn set very high standards for the design of Riva boats. When the brilliant Italian boat builder took over the fortunes of the yard in the 1950s, he fell head over heels in love with the shapes of American Runabout design. His Riva Runabouts, even more refined in their styling, quickly came to be seen as the epitome of a sophisticated, laid-back and fast status symbol on the water.
Even today, Riva boats in Runabout style are still fondly called the "Sophia Loren" among powerboats – although, alongside the "queen" of the haute volée of the day, many other stars such as Brigitte Bardot, Alain Delon, Peter Sellers, Jean-Paul Belmondo and Sean Connery enjoyed themselves with and aboard a Riva Runabout.

More than 4,000 Riva Runabouts

The steadily rising number of orders finally prompted yard boss Carlo Riva to move from one-off builds to semi-custom series production. In terms of craftsmanship, the most important innovation in the production process was probably that the rather time-consuming individual planking of the hull had to give way to planking with machine-prefabricated hull halves.
Carlo Riva's fascinating and ultimately timeless designs thrilled the entire world. In the 1960s and 1970s, up to 18 boats left the yard – per day!

Conservative estimates assume that more than 4,000 wood Riva boats were built in total, around half of which are still afloat and running today.

Since the turn of the millennium, Riva has been part of the Ferretti group of shipyards. The legendary Runabouts made of wood have long since ceased to be built. Yet the name Riva still stands for the highest boatbuilding quality, luxury and design assurance of a kind that is only rarely found today.