Riva History Placeholder
From ClassicBoatWiki
Chris Craft Riva Connection:
A Partnership Begins:
We know or at least some know Riva as the iconic brand of Kings and royalty, the Rolls Royce of the wooden boating world. The man, the legend behind the brand was Carlo Riva himself and his mission was to produce the finest craft in all the world. Spanning two generations of boat builders before him Carlo came of age in the booming post-war years to take over the Riva family boat yard. His minds eye saw the dream to produce some of the most beautiful and functional craft ever. But before that dream could be realized Carlo knew he had to build the brand, the image that would last generations.
As a young man Carlo devoured the various boating advertisements and publications from around the world. He wasn’t just looking for style but also for what made a boat manufacturer successful. He could not help but be influenced by the biggest and most well known name in boating, Chris Craft.
The story as told by Carlo himself and author Piero Gibellini:
Recapitulating the decade, when Carlo was in his thirties and had “inherited”, as he says, the boatyard from his still living father there years ago, he was well aware that an engine with problems, especially out at sea, apart from any objective responsibilities, disgraces the builder of the boat. Moreover, if the unprofitable racing boat was in Serafino’s heart, the touring runabout, built in series was in Carlo’s mind: “Although I had no money I wanted, at all costs to fit American engines to my boats. They had always fascinated me and, for me, they represented the apotheosis of perfection and safety. The very idea of being able to visit the Chris-Craft factory in Algonac, Michigan was a dream for me, very close to the idea of the moon.” Carlo Riva said this when stating his admiration for the largest manufacturer of marine engines and, above all, of runabouts. He collected all the American boatyard’s catalogs which he kept carefully, as text-books. He bought a ticket for New York and obtained a letter of introduction from a customer and friend, the Roman film magnate Scalera, to the latter’s New York office. It was the beginning of 1952. The flight lasted 16 hours, including a landing for refueling in the Azores, on a KLMDC-6, full of small children, most of them crying, war orphans who had been adopted by American families whom they were flying out to join. “It was a journey that I will never forget, partly because it was sad to have them around and partly because of the funk of my first flight. But it was relieved by the kindness of the man in the next seat, an Italo-American who worked in New York. Neither will I ever forget my arrival at that huge airport where I couldn’t find my bearings and, moreover, with all those married couples who, holding photos, were trying to identify their adoptive child.” Using his letter of introduction he went to the address on the envelope and who should open the door but the pleasant Italo-American with whom he had travelled on the plane. He reached Detroit with his help and finally entered the Chris-Craft “sancta sanctorum” in Algonac. “Very kind and hospitable, but with a big business mentality; a minimum order of 50 engines. And I barely had the money to buy six…” He was in America at last, in the factory of his dreams, and he ran the risk of going back home without having achieved anything. Not knowing what to do he turned to the Italian Consulate. The Consul assigned him an interpreter, a pleasant lady of a certain age, in the hope that an official presence and knowledge of the language would be useful stimuli to convince “those in the factory” to stop insisting on such a large minimum quantity. It was impossible. The next day he went out for lunch with Earl Clarke, who Carlo strangely still calls Roy to this day, the Manager of the Marine Engine Division.
Although he did not speak the language he decided to leave the interpreter at home, hoping he could solve his problems across the dinner table. The restaurant was a boat anchored along the bank of the St. Lawrence river. “While we were eating, enormous blocks of ice were floating past a few inches from the windows. It was the heart of winter and I remember thinking that if a block of ice had hit the restaurant it could have put an end to my American adventure. And Clarke’s heart was as icy as the blocks borne by the current or, perhaps, he had to obey firm instructions.” He was really discouraged, he felt alone and terribly cold in a climate (-20°) to which he was unaccustomed. Wandering around the city trying to think of a solution to his problem he went into a bar for a warming drink. “The bar was full of black people with enormous necks who looked at me distrustfully.” While he was drinking, ‘Old Man River’ was playing on the phonograph. It seemed like a prophecy and he felt even more alone and unwanted. He went out with his spirits even lower and thought of returning home, discouraged and with empty hands. As we know, night brings advice: the next morning he told Earl Clarke that the Italian Government only allowed the import of six engines per dispatch. Carlo Riva never knew whether Earl had been taken in by the story or whether he was happy about the escape route found. The order was for 50 engines, but with staggered deliveries of six at a time and with the next dispatch depending on payment for the previous one. He thus obtained the supply and the exclusive rights. He signed the contract with a hand shaking at the thought of having to find the liquidity needed to pay for the supply before the second dispatch was sent. He returned home radiant and the engines arrived promptly, six at a time. “This, however, involved management on the razor’s edge, creating worries about compliance with delivery dates since the small number of engines in each delivery could not allow the yard to survive possible delays. Little Lia, my first daughter, seeing how worried I was, asked God in her prayers to make the engines be delivered on time.” After this very daring start, the first 50 engines were followed by others, year after year, reaching a total of almost 2000 among those used directly by the yard and those sold to other boatyards (about a hundred).
With the experience acquired, Riva asked for special modifications to the engines ordered and Chris-Craft promptly accepted these requests as being justified and used them in production: the last engines delivered had almost 100 modifications compared to their original standard.
