Old-school cool: Meet the retro runabouts that are surprisingly high tech

Classic runabouts may appear gloriously unchanging, but beneath the glossy mahogany decks, a quiet revolution is taking place. Sam Fortescue meets the builders melding retro glamour with modern substance and designs for a 21st-century market.

Mention the word “runabout” and many boating enthusiasts will picture a gleaming mahogany Riva carving an effortless furrow across a glassy lake. Intriguing, then, that Ernesto Riva wasn’t the first to build runabouts – he wasn’t the first European and perhaps not even the first Italian to do so. Various boatbuilders from Hacker-Craft to Boesch claim to have invented the genre.

Brands have come and gone, but the concept of a fast, sexy open boat that leans towards watersports has endured. Indeed, the desire for this kind of craft is growing steadily, according to the likes of Hacker or Cockwells. And while the gleaming mahogany deck is still ubiquitous, there is a wealth of cutting-edge technology lurking just beneath the veneer.

Just look at Sweden’s J Craft, whose roots go back 25 years. The yard produces just a single model, the 12.6-metre Torpedo, requiring 8,000 painstaking hours to complete. Built using vacuum-infused glass-vinylester with a PVC foam sandwich core, this is a thoroughly modern boat. Add in the twin Volvo IPS drives, Seakeeper gyrostabiliser and modern navigation systems, and you have totally contemporary performance.

“We recently introduced our dynamic positioning system, which relies on antennas connecting to satellites,” says owner and CEO Radenko Milakovic. “These antennas are entirely invisible, preserving the Torpedo’s classic aesthetic while integrating state-of-the-art technology. This innovation ensures that the Torpedo remains one of the most technologically advanced vessels on the market, seamlessly blending modern functionality with timeless design.”

A little less bella figura and more British pluck, the UK’s Cockwells builds classy launches on the shores of Mylor Creek in Cornwall. The Duchy range certainly looks the part, harking back to a time of elegant lines and high topsides, but they’re built of fibreglass and bristle with technology. The range now runs from 6.4 to 18.3 metres, with an eclectic custom portfolio embracing ultra-modern foilers as well as the peerless Gaya, which some have dubbed the heir to Riva’s Aquarama.

“We feel that our concept of building a traditional styled launch hasn’t changed since Cockwells was founded 28 years ago,” says marketing director Jo Cockwell. “Our aim is the same as it always has been, which is to craft vessels that are both beautifully elegant and capable of delivering exceptional performance even under challenging conditions.”

With brokers in the US and Australia, and plans for more around European yachting hotspots, the business is expanding. Sales have doubled since 2019, although Cockwell believes that has as much to do with the launches themselves as market growth. “Whenever one of our Duchy launches or custom runabouts arrives at a new port, we consistently get a surge of enquiries leading to additional sales,” she says.

Riva, of course, diversified into fibreglass as far back as the 1970s and now builds giant cruisers as well, but it still recognises the central importance of the classic runabout to its brand identity. With its GRP hull, the limited-edition Anniversario is clearly an evolution of the original boats, but it still boasts mahogany decks, glorious white and aquamarine leather upholstery and a sunbed with elegant steps cut into the transom.

Now in its 20th year, the 10.1-metre Aquariva has become an icon in its own right, but it was designed in homage to the 1960s Aquarama. Since then, there have been the El-Iseo, Dolceriva and Rivarama – all GRP riffs on the original boats with modern features from instant wine chillers to electric propulsion. 

They have one thing in common, though: they all look the part. “We will never allow anyone to change our exteriors and our lines, because a Riva is a Riva and you have to be able to recognise it from afar,” says Stefano de Vivo, outgoing CCO of Riva’s parent company, the Ferretti Group.

The thing is technology never stands still, and even those who pride themselves on their traditional artisanship are not building in the same way as their forerunners a century ago. Spirit Yachts of Ipswich, UK, is a case in point. It has transferred its wooden sailing boat building expertise to a series of sleek, organic launches built of cedar and Douglas fir on sipo frames – works of art that exploit wood’s natural predispositions to create smooth curves, arches and flares. 

Yet, every hull is epoxy laminated in a thoroughly modern process that strengthens and protects the wooden surfaces without dimming their glory. And it all but eliminates maintenance of the hull – the bane of any wooden boat owner’s life.

The results are bewitching, and no two boats look the same. “That’s the beauty of working in wood – if someone wants something slightly different, we can accommodate that without the cost of redoing a mould,” says Julian Weatherill, production and design director. 

The range currently includes a 12.3-metre P35 and P40 launch, and a jaw-dropping foiling 10.7-metre slipper launch, built for Ben Ainslie Racing. But Weatherill says that a 15-metre is on the way, alongside smaller boats as well. “A lot of clients with this sort of money have got the cash, but they’re time poor. They just want to get down to the boat, turn the key and go out for the day. That’s a trend that’s only going to continue, so we want to position ourselves for that.”

Spirit is looking to the US market for growth, and in many respects America is the home of the classic runabout. John L Hacker was a pioneer of the genre and his beautiful mahogany-planked boats came to be known as the Steinways of the water in the garrulous 1930s. 

They are still built in upstate New York, and the Legacy collection would have been familiar to Gatsby’s circle. But Hacker-Craft has also diversified into classic-looking GRP boats with its Aquavant models, pushing it to growth of 60 per cent since 2019.

“Purchase prices have increased significantly over the last six years, largely due to the complexities and intricacies to make each boat special for its owner. The average value for a new custom build is around $500,000 [£385,000],” says COO Erin Badcock. “We’ve employed some different manufacturing processes to make it more efficient. Legacy boats are still built by hand, albeit using power tools.

Below the waterline, the hull is triple planked, including two layers of diagonal planking. Then we use epoxy to encapsulate the wood, to create a hull that still has flex but without the water intrusion of a traditional process.”

Stancraft has been in the business for almost as long, turning out beautiful mahogany-on-oak runabouts in the land-locked state of Idaho. With names like Rivelle, Hammerhead and Exocet, these boats are about speed and grace, and take some 6,000 man-hours to complete. The yard is not shy of new technology and fits touchscreens and underwater lights if customers want.

Further east in Wisconsin, Grand Craft prefers analogue instruments and hand-cast deck fittings. But even wooden stalwarts such as Boesch of Switzerland have moved with the times to some extent. 

In the 1960s and 70s, Boesch was at the forefront of research into propeller dynamics and planing, giving rise to the much-vaunted Horizon Gliding characteristics of the boats, which naturally trim level and handle superbly. Not only that, but Boesch has adopted modern plywood construction and semi production-line techniques in place of solid wood planking.

Modern touchscreen electronics remain anathema to Boesch, which prefers a mechanical solution that “you can fix with a hammer and a screwdriver”. The yard prides itself on the craftsmanship in its boats, which have been synonymous with water skiing (and now wakeboarding) since the 1960s. Ranging from the 6.2-metre Acapulco to the 9.7-metre St Tropez, they are the absolute epitome of classic glamour with leather upholstery and a mahogany hull.

Markus Boesch – the fourth generation of his family to build all-wooden runabouts on the shores of Lake Zurich, says the time has never been better to go for a more traditional wooden boat. “Some of our competitors in fibreglass boats have made really big price rises over the last few years,” he says. “One in particular has raised prices 30 per cent a year for three years in a row. So, we’re not that far away from a standard GRP boat.”

He says there are other advantages to buying wooden, too. “The boats keep their value for much longer. If you buy a wooden boat, you may pay a slightly higher price, but if you decide to sell your boat, you get a higher price as well. During the period of using the boat, it has not cost you that much.”

There’ll always be vigorous debate about what makes “a classic”. But whether we’re talking wooden Comitti Boats and Boesch at one end of the spectrum or Chris-Craft’s bowriders at the other, the runabout has one thing in common. It simply looks fantastic. Or in the words of Riva’s Stefano de Vivo: “The classic ones steal your eye because they’re just so elegant; the new classics steal your eye because they’re so rich and perfectly balanced in their design.”

First published in the December 2024 issue of BOAT International. Get this magazine sent straight to your door, or subscribe and never miss an issue.