29-04-2022
PROJECTS IN PROCESS
RUMBLING RUNABOUTS
RUMBLING RUNABOUTS | LA DOLCE VITA SUL LAGO
I was a kid in the eighties when we went on holiday to Italy for the first time. The little town of Ascona was our destination and it was there, at the shores of Lago Maggiore, where I had my encounter with one of the greatest watersport icons ever, the Riva runabout. Since that day I not only was a fan of Italian supercars but also of Italian classic wooden speedboats.
In 1842, this year 180 years ago, Pietro Riva began building commercial boats at the shores of Lake Iseo, northern Italy. His family-run shipyard shifted focus in the twenties when Serafino, one of the grandsons of Pietro, started building powerboats which successfully competed in offshore racing.
But it was Carlo Riva, son of Serafino, who made the brand of what it is today by building the famous wooden speedboats and selling them to the celebrities of the 50’s and 60’s. A large part of that success came from the 1962 Aquarama model, an 8-meter-long twin V8 powered masterpiece capable of 73 km/h. Not only celebrities bought these iconic boats, also entrepreneurs found their way to Garda where the shipyard was located at the time.
One of them was Ferruccio Lamborghini. In 1968 he ordered an Aquarama with a special request: the boat had to be powered not by two V8 engines, but by two of his own 3.9 litres V12 engines! The result was a one-off masterpiece that rumbled along the shores of Italian lakes for over 20 years.
Riva was of course not the only brand building these beautiful runabouts. Other companies made their mark as well like Boesch, Colombo, Chris Craft, Harbour and Century. Most striking elements of these iconic boats are the wooden hull, the mahogany deck, the wraparound windscreen and the V8 power. All elements that help us towards a worthy Ultimo Parri homage.