Show Boats: The Enduring Style of the Mahogany Runabout

By Shaun Tolson View the full issue. With the First World War in their rearview mirrors, Americans approached the 1920s with an unbridled urge to live the good life. The country’s most affluent citizens slid behind the wheels of Auburns, Cords, and Duesenbergs when they were on the road. When at their lakeside and oceanfront retreats, they boarded equally swift, sleek, and chic mahogany runabouts. Thanks to boatbuilders Chris-Craft, Gar Wood, and Hacker Boat Company, waterways such as Lake George in the East and Lake Tahoe in the West teemed with high-powered motorboats as beautiful in design as they were thrilling in performance. Chris-Craft founder Chris Smith built his runabouts using the same principles he applied to the championship-winning speedboats he had constructed in the early 1900s for wealthy clients including Henry Ford and William Randolph Hearst. Flaunting sumptuous, highly polished wooden bodies and capable V-12 engines, runabouts epitomized luxury leisure during the ’20s, ’30s, and early ’40s. Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, and Katharine Hepburn were just a few of the glitterati who owned Chris-Craft’s iconic mahogany-hulled runabouts. (The company stopped making wooden boats in the early 1970s.) Aquariva Super Blue 2017 Hacker Boat Company—known today as Hacker-Craft—pioneered the wooden runabout industry, introducing cutting-edge design and sweeping aesthetics. Founded in a town just south of Lake George in 1908, the company still operates there, building mahogany speedsters as it did more than a century ago along with an optional fiberglass sheathing for its hulls, which allows for custom paint schemes and simpler maintenance. “We still build in a very traditional way using traditional methods,” explains Hacker-Craft COO Erin Badcock, “but we offer more modern conveniences and employ modern technologies, such as epoxied hulls.” (Epoxy protects wood hulls from rot and other water damage. Hacker-Craft also creates a UV guard by sealing the wood with varnish.) “You still get the smell of the varnish and the mahogany and the leather—and the boats still offer the timeless feel and panache of a classic Hacker-Craft runabout,” Badcock continues. “But we’re building them to accommodate the 21st-century boater.” As proof, the company recently introduced a series of electric-powered, zero-emission mahogany runabouts. In fact, buyers can now request an electric motor for any of the company’s runabout models. Swiss prestige brand Jakob Boesch also makes its coveted runabouts with classic mahogany hulls that are sealed with layers of epoxy for durability, then topped with varnish for tradition—and that offer quiet, emission-free electric engines. One of the most iconic names in mahogany runabouts is Italian boatbuilder Carlo Riva, whose brand epitomized a joyous optimism in the aftermath of the Second World War. For two decades, la dolce vita was perfectly illustrated by the sight of a Riva Aquarama sailing the azure waters of the French and Italian Rivieras. The boats became synonymous with wealth and fame—European royal families and Hollywood A-listers were among the company’s discerning customers. Investing in an Icon A century ago, the most desirable runabouts carried a price tag as high as $10,000 (the equivalent of about $180,000 in 2024). That was more than twice the cost of an average three-bedroom home in the U.S. Today, a new Hacker-Craft runabout starts around $375,000. Across the pond, Riva is tight-lipped on the starting price for its contemporary Aquariva Super (a 33-footer that features carved mahogany decks inlaid with maple), but pre-owned examples carry price tags exceeding $700,000. A Riva Anniversario. Classic, vintage mahogany runabouts are still very much in demand. Pristine, beautifully restored examples only occasionally come up for auction, and when they do, they command premiums. In 2013, a 28-foot Gar Wood Triple Cockpit Runabout, circa 1932, sold for almost $400,000. This past year, a 27-foot Chris-Craft, circa 1941 (one of only three examples built that year), sold for $234,000 at auction. Vintage Riva Aquaramas, on the other hand, don’t typically grace public auctions. They’re more likely to sell privately and for sums that allegedly approach seven figures. History would suggest that such an investment is money well spent. After all, a beautifully built mahogany runabout never goes out of style.