July 15th, 2021
RIVA’S EARLY YEARS
More than 170 years ago, the Riva family of woodworking craftsmen began building what are now iconic, classically designed boats. The legacy continues today as the line has grown from elegant wooden vessels to a diverse line of luxury fiberglass pleasure boats and yachts.
The Riva Yachts history began in 1842 when Pietro Riva, a 20-year-old carpenter, left Sarnico, Italy to repair boats at Lake Iseo. His exceptional woodworking skills on a severely damaged boat led to additional work in the region to repair and build new boats.
Riva’s Sarnico Shipyard, 1842
As he completed orders for fishing and row boats, his business and his family grew. He and his wife, Lucrezia Taroni, had five children: Angelo, Francesco, Ernesto, Erminia and Luigi. The middle child, Ernesto, grew up to learn his father’s trade and join him as a skilled carpenter.
With great foresight, Ernesto believed that future boaters would want bigger boats equipped with engines. To meet that vision, he developed and manufactured larger vessels, and as his hunch proved correct, he built his first motorboat.
Success for the father and son’s expanding business soon necessitated they build a new boatyard. Expansion continued as Ernesto built his own boat, named Sarnico in honor of the family heritage and began the first motorized tourist boat trips on Lake Iseo.
The future of the family business was again secured when Ernesto Riva married Carolina Malighetti and the couple had six children: Francesco, Angelo, Serafino, Mauro, Anna, and Pierina. Middle son Serafino took over the business when Ernesto Riva died in a shipyard accident during a large boat launch in 1907. With a new member of the Riva family at the helm, the company focus again veered – this time from transportation to recreational boats as the availability of small inboard and outboard engines increased.
RACING WITH RIVA – LEISURE AND SPEED RAMP UP IN THE 1920s
One of Riva’s early racing motorboats
When the nautical industry saw a sales boom, Serafino Riva capitalized on public interest by building racing motorboats. Serafino raced his Rivas, and early in the fairly new sport, he exceeded 24 km/h in an outboard speedboat in the Spring of 1912. Riva racing boats continued to be top competitors throughout the 1920s and prominent exposure during events helped to expand the leisure-craft market worldwide.
The family line was destined to continue, at least by marriage, when Serafino married Irma Bocchi and had three children: Carlo, Dafne (who married Gino Gervason who eventually joins Riva), and Marilena.
RACING IN THE 1930s AND 40s WITH RIVA
A Riva motorboat racing
The Riva name continued to capture headlines during the 1920s and 30s. Prominent in the media were famous friends and competitors, Serafino Riva and Giuseppe Guerini. Each raced in Riva boats with the same outboard engines. Riva boats continued to be popular in the racing sport until political events leading up to World War II caused racing to be suspended in Italy.
During the war, production slowed but never ceased at the Riva facility. Many famous racers competed in Rivas including:
Carlo Pagliano achieves the outboard endurance record – over 4 hours on a Riva boat with a 250 cc engine