It would be easy to define the SILVER 45 and SILVER 55 as “Riva of the poor people” as we had ironically called them when they were presented in the pages of our newsletter. Obviously there is no intent of comparison with the famous runabouts (real Rolls-Royces of the sea) which we cannot strive to achieve or equal in luxury, or elegance of lines, nor finishing. Compared to the Riva motorboats, we also believe that the SILVER ones even share that rather bumptious tone which inevitably goes along with perfection. Certainly they do not share the costs and, the scope of our plans is to offer the amateur boat builder the possibility to realize a practical and efficient runabout that may, with a little extra time and work – together with a certain amount of care for finishing – have its own particular elegance. The research for elegance is quite evident, for example, from the reverse transom: in imitation of the Riva types, we could also have made it slightly convex but we didn’t think it was proper to impose on the constructor this type of difficulty. The shapes of the SILVER boats are very classical and, although they have lines that are quite racy, to give them quite a modern look, there is nothing particularly new in that: in the 60s and 70s the runabout boats were already built in wood with similar shapes and it is only with the introduction of fibreglass that these typical shapes have changed.

The classical hull shape of the old wooden runabouts of the 70’s go perfectly well with the use of marine plywood and this allows the SILVER to be constructed with a similar method to the stitch and glue one. The SILVER boats are not “instant boats” and construction takes quite a long time, but does not represent insurmountable difficulties, not even for the inexperienced boat builder. The bottom panel has a rather elevated curvature and, to obtain it, we have opted for quite thin plywood, which must be coated with fibreglass. The sides, instead, are not coated, so as to finish them transparent stain. The SILVER 45 is the minimum dimension for a motorboat of this type, while the SILVER 55 offers more space and the possibility to have the driver’s seat astern, a large enough cockpit which may be transformed into a sundeck. The power should be 25/40 HP for the SLIVER 45 and 40 HP for the SILVER 55, which lies within the limits foreseen for driving without a driving licence, but which allows one also to glide with full load. The boat is unsinkable as the bow is watertight (with crash-box function) and it is fitted with a double bottom.