From Chris-Craft to Riva: One Man’s Love Affair with Classic Wooden Boats

From Chris-Craft to Riva: One Man’s Love Affair with Classic Wooden Boats

It’s an hour before the start of the 50^th annual Lake Tahoe Concours d’Elegance. A rare and stunningly beautiful Italian masterpiece floats at the end of a row of vintage boats having last-minute details attended to by its doting owner. Portofino, a 27-foot 1969 Riva Aquarama with distinctive orange and cream-white interior is a well-known fixture on Tahoe’s scenic West Shore. This boat’s owner, Jeff Peterson, is equally familiar to the area’s vibrant wooden boat community. Clad in a well-pressed orange Italian linen shirt with cuffs folded just so, Peterson’s elegant appearance complements his boat. Attention to detail is everywhere. From the color-coordinated linens, pillows and towels to the tiny orange Moke electric car in the parking lot, nothing has been overlooked.

Clearly this is a man passionate about boats. Peterson grew up in Minnesota, “The Land of 10,000 Lakes.” There, he spent summers during his formative years at the family’s cabin in Bay Lake with his older siblings, boating, water-tobogganing and water-skiing. Years later, he was living Northern California and began yearning to acquire his own boat. Being a vintage-car enthusiast, he was already attracted to classics, so he started asking around. Then in 1991, an old family friend, F. Todd Warner in Minnesota, called to tell Peterson that he had a vintage boat for sale. “Todd sent me several photos and a video of a 1949 22-foot Chris-Craft Sportsman running and racing across Lake Minnetonka outside of Minneapolis where I grew up,” said Peterson. “I absolutely fell in love with her lines, beauty and functionality for our soon-to-be young family.” Peterson bought the boat and commissioned Warner to undertake a full restoration to her original specifications. The restoration was completed the following year and Peterson and his wife, Linda, traveled back to Bay Lake for a vacation to take delivery. He christened her Emma ll, in memory of his grandmother whom he fondly remembers boating with as a child.

Emma II was brought back to California just in time for the 1992 Lake Tahoe Concours d’Elegance, where she was awarded First in Class, the first of many awards bestowed upon the boat over the years—not only at Tahoe but also the ACBS (Antique and Classic Boat Society) at Lake Arrowhead, CA, where Emma ll captured Best Chris-Craft of Show twice, Best Engine of Show and overall Best of Show. Emma ll would serve not just as a showboat every season, but as the family boat, too. Peterson’s two children, son Taylor and daughter Brittain, would grow up on her, learning her quirks and becoming schooled in her care and maintenance. Emma ll is now part of the family and will remain so forever.

Peterson had now been bitten by the classic-boat bug and wanted another one, but something totally different from the Chris-Craft. In 1999, he found a rare triple-cockpit 1929 Hacker-Craft Dolphin Junior. The 26-foot boat needed a major restoration, but Peterson was up to the challenge. A tedious, comprehensive restoration was performed over the next three years. Peterson conducted countless hours of research and consulting with Hacker-Craft specialists and historians during the restoration process, insisting on authenticity down to the last detail. One painstaking project was sourcing the leather used for the seats. When the boat was disassembled for restoration, a small piece of the original leather upholstery was found folded over one of the seat backs. Hidden from decades of weather and with no UV sun damage, the swatch was in excellent condition. Yet despite an exhaustive search, an exact match still could not be located. Miraculously, though, the company that provided the leather to Hacker-Craft in 1929 was still in business and agreed to make some new leather that perfectly matched the color, texture and graining of the sample Peterson provided.

When it came to sourcing wood, Honduran Mahogany doesn’t exactly grow on trees these days, yet planks with the correct grain were discovered and carefully selected for the deck. The original instruments were, of course, also detailed to perfection, while the massive 678-cubic-inch, 220-horsepower, six-cylinder Kermath 200 Sea Wolf engine was meticulously restored by John Allen. It’s a true work of art.

Hacker-Craft proudly proclaimed their products to be “The Steinway of runabouts” in marketing pieces, so Peterson appropriately named his stunning new old boat Steinway. The freshly-restored vessel was first shown at the Lake Tahoe Concours d’Elegance in 2002. Steinway played well with the judges, who awarded her a dizzying First in Class, Best Professional Restoration (awarded to restorer Jim Senior), Best Triple Cockpit Over 23 Feet, Best Hacker-Craft of Show, Best Marque Class of Show and the prestigious Best of Show.

Peterson and co. aboard his 1969 Riva Aquarama, Portofino, on a bluebird day on Lake Tahoe.

Of course, owning and maintaining old boats is not always a walk in the park—and there can be occasional heat-stopping moments too. In 2014, after a full day of fun on Lake Tahoe, Peterson tied Steinway to a buoy and covered her up that night at the Tahoe Tavern. Just as he sat down for dinner with his family, he received a call from the Tahoe Tavern Office informing him that Steinway was sinking.

Fortunately, a couple of young men who were wake-boarding noticed that Steinway’s stern was 3 to 4 inches shy of being fully covered by water. They signaled for help, then jumped aboard Steinway and began pumping her out while also feverishly bailing water from her third cockpit. By the time Peterson arrived 10 minutes later, the duo already had most of the water out of the boat, but she was still seriously leaking where a shaft seal had broken, and the bilge pumps couldn’t keep up. Thankfully, the nearby Tahoe City Marina placed Steinway up on her slings for support and saved the motoryacht with relatively minor damage. A still-relieved Peterson says, “I’m grateful for the help I received to save her. Steinway is simply irreplaceable.”

Now the owner of two beautiful wooden boats, Peterson was content with his small fleet of classics. That is, until he became fascinated with a sexy Italian—the Riva Aquarama.

In 2015, Peterson acquired Portofino. The boat, Aquarama hull number 313, was originally delivered new to Switzerland where she was enjoyed on Lake Geneva. She was then driven extensively across the Mediterranean by her subsequent Monaco-based owner before being sold and imported to Lake Tahoe by the Sierra Boat Company in 1982. She remained with the same owner on Lake Tahoe for 30-plus years before Peterson’s purchase.

Buying the Riva was a fairly simple process. The harder part came when Peterson had to explain to Linda that they were now the proud owners of a third wooden boat. “It was late spring, and I went shopping for two bathing suits—one that was turquoise and white, and one that was orange and white. Both color combinations were popular among the Rivas in the late ‘60s. I placed them is separate boxes with a photo of an Aquarama inside on the bottom along with a Riva key fob gently placed in the box. There was no special occasion for the gifts, but she was excited to open them. I told her she could open them both up, but could only keep one. She opened each box, looked up at me and asked: ‘Do we own a Riva’ I said yes and she immediately said ‘Orange!’”

The Aquarama was brought to the Riva specialists at Northwest Classic Boats in nearby Auburn, CA, for restoration and shown at the 2016 Lake Tahoe Concours d’Elegance. Once again, Peterson’s uncompromising attention to detail and authenticity was rewarded when Portofino earned First in Class, Best Riva of Show and Best of Show over 23 Feet.

Today, Peterson is well known in classic-boat circles and he’s spent decades giving back to his aquatic passion. He joined Antique & Classic Boat Society in 1992 at age 29 and was asked to serve on the board a few years later—ultimately serving as President in 2001.

While boating on Lake Tahoe is amazing, Peterson’s classic boating adventures have not been limited to Northern California. He has hitched up Portofino and hauled her clear across the continent to attend events, most notably in 2019 to New York. There, he piloted her around the Statue of Liberty, headed into Manhattan for lunch, later enjoyed dinner at the New York Yacht Club and then made his way up the Hudson River with six other Rivas for a long cruise. On that same trip, he trailered Portofino up to the St. Lawerence River for an excursion on Alexandria Bay before hauling her back to California. Over the years, he has trailered different boats to events in Idaho, Wisconsin and Minnesota. The Riva Historical Society has several events each year in Europe, and Peterson has attended owner gatherings in Saint Tropez, Santa Margherita and Lake Como, making friends along the way.

Today, wooden boats seem as natural to the beauty of Lake Tahoe as the clear, blue water, the majestic trees and mountains that surround it. There is a vibrant classic-boat culture thanks to the efforts of Peterson and other Tahoe-area vintage-boat owners, and Peterson is always happy to take friends old and new out on his boats. His wife Linda and now-adult son and daughter love the machines as well, and are all accomplished at captaining these floating works of art.

All three of Peterson’s boats can be seen from time to time on Lake Tahoe’s West Shore, however Portofino is always in the water and used almost daily during the boating season, adding to the beauty of the lake, giving the family endless enjoyment and bringing smiles wherever they go.

This article originally appeared in the January 2025 issue of Power & Motoryacht magazine.

View the original article to see embedded media.

Source: https://www.powerandmotoryacht.com/boats/from-chris-craft-to-riva-one-mans-love-affair-with-classic-wooden-boats