What’s Life Like At The Helm Of a Vintage Boat?

There is a definite cross-over between the passion for classic cars and classic boats. As Matthias writes, the view is the best, both coming and going. Here is the view off the back of our 1941 Chris Craft at Tahoe last summer.

The equivalent of Petrolicious in the wooden boat world is WoodyBoater.com. Check it out!

I am a sucker for any classic boat. While a beautiful classic wooden powerboat is certainly and object of desire, my tastes tend to run toward classic wooden sailing yachts like these 6 Meters.

Couple of years back I was lucky enough piloting a Pedrazzini (http://www.pedrazziniboat.com/en/home.html) for a guy, who owned one but had no license. In Europe you need to have one and for boats this powerful one should have one (my opinion). It was an older model from the 70-ties and it looked like a classic Riva. These wooden boats are a piece of art and this particular one was a fast piece of art. These boats really please the eyes and not only yours. The sound isn’t bad either. 2 big V8’s and around 400 hp. I was glad that it wasn’t I, who had to pay the gas bills and speaking about bills, I was able have a glance at the annual maintenance and storage invoice – uh uh! A wise man once said: ” if it flies, floats or …. (I forgot the third one), don’t buy – rent”

I’m not an owner or even a classic boat enthusiast, but I think you’ll appreciate this:

Last summer I was on holiday with my family (I was 18 at the time) in a town called Salò on the western side of Lake Garda in Italy. It’s a stunning region and I recommend everyone to go there at least once in their lifetime, and it has a reputation for being quite well-off as well, since it was (and still is) a popular destination for European aristocrats. Because of this reputation, the image of a sleek speedboat on crystalline water in perfect weather is the image that I associated the area with, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. The speedboat in question was also a Riva Aquarama in my mind (thanks to Top Gear and James Bond), and you can imagine how happy I was to see one flash by on the first day of our visit.
A few days in, however, my little brother got off of his phone for long enough to tell me that a friend of his was in the area and her parents had invited us for some waterskiing. We turned up at the hotel they were at, expecting that it’d be shore-based, but they surprised us by telling us they had a “little boat” in a berth on the lake. They walked us to the back of the hotel where I was astonished to see a real 1960’s Riva Super Aquarama, and casually hopped in. I spent the rest of the day living the image in had in my mind, everything from speeding around to the sound of what I think are two american V8’s, to cruising into a different town and getting an ice-cream. I can honestly say it was one of the best days of my life.

To be honest when it comes to classic boats the wife and I are more puff [ sail ] than power . Having said that though brother do I ever have a love of classic power boats . Especially the entire Hacker Craft , Riva etc ‘ sport ‘ boat genre . Why ? Because you’d be shocked as to how fast most of them are . Because the level of comfort offered at speed cannot be equaled by any Tupperware boat ever made . Because they are a treat for the eyes as well as the senses . And because of the sense of occasion and class that goes with your arrival in one versus the disdain and suspicion that comes to the fore when arriving in a ‘ sport ‘ Tupperware boat

So you owe it to yourself Mr Banovsky to arrange a little spin in one ASAP . Head up if it happens to be a Riva ! Set your left turns up way in advance . Riva’s have a tendency to be a bit stubborn when aimed that direction .

And as a thank you as well as a treat I give you this . The ultimate Riva in my opinion ;

http://www.rivalamborghini.com/

Enjoy !

There are very few things that are cooler than a well heeled FeatherCraft boat. Made from the 1940-70’s they are beautiful to behold and are about a 10th the price of a really nice teak boat.

This isn’t mine – I’m still sorting it – it came from something close to junk to watertight and running now. Next is the cosmetic bit. I’m including this picture so you can get an idea of what they look like in the wild.