The best stories often arise from adverse events. It’s precisely in the darkest moments that one finds the strength to accomplish unprecedented feats and thus create legends. This is exactly what happened to the Riva family: it made the best of a natural catastrophe, founding one of the best-known Italian companies in the world.
In 1842 in the town of Sarnico on Lake Iseo, a sudden and violent storm hit the boats of the local fishermen, damaging them enormously and making them unusable. A young shipwright, Pietro Riva had just moved from Lake Como to Sarnico: he immediately realized that he was in the right place at the right time and collecting the wood destroyed by the storm, he began reconstructing the fishermen’s boats, managing to restore almost all of them. The fishermen could then restart the business, the only source of income for their families, and the locals began to appreciate Pietro Riva and his professionalism. For his part, Pietro Riva understood the potential of the place and founded the first shipyard and shortly afterwards he began to build the first Riva boats.
The Growth of the Riva Shipyards, from Generation to Generation
From the launch of the first Riva shipyard in Sarnico and onwards, several generations have taken over the management of the family business and they have all contributed substantially to the company’s expansion and affirmation of the Riva brand on the national and international markets. The first take over from Pietro was his son Ernesto Riva: he realized that the internal combustion engine was going to be the future of boats and therefore he decided to install it on his own boats; thus Sarnico was born – in honor of the town of origin – the first steamship designed and built by Ernesto Riva with which he offered tourist trips on Lake Iseo, including a trip to Montisola (the largest lake island in Europe). Ernesto Riva thus began the era of large boats designed both for transport of passengers and for transport of goods from one end of the lake to the other.
The Riva shipyard remained active also during the First World War, at the end of which Serafino Riva (son of Ernesto) joined the company. He decided to move the company’s core business from transport to powerboating, building the first models of motorboats. Between the 1920s and 1930s Riva motorboats participated in numerous national and international races, always securing the top positions. Thanks to the hype around the name “Riva”, the brand acquired more and more value and became known throughout the nautical world.
The 1950s were an important decade for Cantieri Riva: Carlo Riva joined the company and received twice the recognition as “Pioneer in the Nautical Industry” and would be remembered as the person who created the non plus ultra of pleasure boats of the Riva brand. Carlo Riva’s first idea, upon joining the company, was to transform the already powerful family boats into real design objects: he added style, elegance, craftsmanship and precious materials to the shipyard’s constructions, creating new refined and innovative models. From now on, Riva boats were not and would no longer be simple means of transport or creations dedicated to the sole purpose of winning races, but would become true luxury items: status symbols with which film and sport stars and international jetsetters would show their success on glossy covers. Thanks to the attention to shapes and the choice of innovative materials, Carlo Riva was able to seduce the leading personalities the time, making the Riva brand part of the nautical stars and bringing Made in Italy to the world of yachting.
Carlo Riva, Nautical Pioneer – Bringing the Riva Brand to the World
In 1954, after a trip to the United States to study the yachts of the time, Carlo Riva decided to expand production of the family business by renovating and enlarging the Sarnico shipyard. Here he dedicated body and soul to the search for perfection for his boats, monitoring the work of his employees day and night and making any decision himself. In this shipyard he continued his research on the use of materials for boats, choosing to completely eliminate the use of plastic in favor of marine plywood, an innovative material made of multilayer wood that literally changed the way of building leisure boats. This led to the construction of the first wooden boats created under the leadership of Carlo Riva, as the Ariston (of which he proudly declared “Designed with love, born strong and pure like a thoroughbred horse. Unforgettable! My lord of the sea”, the Tritone (the first twin-engine of the Riva brand) and the Sebino (introducing hand-crafted series production), names any nautical enthusiast will associate with historical models combining aesthetics, luxury and high performance.