The Story of the RHS and RSGB

Carlo Riva enjoyed immense success from the 1950's into the 70's marketing his runabouts, built in Sarnico on Lake Iseo, to the rich and famous around the world who were able to afford what was, in essence, seen as the 'Rolls Royce' of runabouts.  However, in the 70's a new generation of boats were being constructed, using fibreglass, which brought a number of challenges to the then traditional wooden boat constructors.

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 In the early 70's the popularity of wooden boats started to decline due to their running, up-keep and restoration costs.   The lighter and more stylish fibreglass boats, with more radical designs and colours, were considerably lighter, had a better power to weight ratio, and were cheaper to run and maintain.  They also required little restoration.  At the same time as this was happening the availability and quality of mahogany also began to decline and become more expensive.  

 

As a result of all these factors, all arriving at a similar time, the demand for what were seen as expensive wooden boats rapidly began to fall away as the cheaper fibreglass constructors took over the market for runabouts. Carlo Riva finally sold the Riva boatyard in 1969 to Whittaker, a US company, with Carlo remaining as a consultant until, in 1988, when the company was finally sold to Vickers, the owners of Rolls Royce at that time and who perhaps saw the boatyard more as a trophy investment. The market continued to decline with Floridas having ceased production in 1969, Aristons in 1974 and the Olympic in 1976.  The only final remaining original wooden Riva then being constructed was the Aquarama Special until it too ceased production in 1996.

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In the late 90's Piero Gibellini and Carlo Riva began discussions with the desire to re-build the history of the Riva wooden runabouts with a view to gathering together like minded Riva owners and establishing the true provenance and values of these important runabouts created by Carlo Riva on Lake Iseo and sold around the world.  From these discussions the 'Riva Historical Society', (RHS), was created in 1998 and Mariella Gibellini was appointed as the Secretary to help undertake the administration of the society.

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The establishment of the Riva Historical Society, therefore, was highly visionary move and without it many more Riva runabouts would have been left to rot rather than be restored to the beautiful runabouts we see today.

Sadly, in April 2017, Carlo Riva passed away and so the boating world lost a true creative visionary.  

Happily, one of his daughters, Maria Pia Riva, became the Honorary President and so the association with the 'Riva family' still continues.