Arthur Piver

Sailor, Deceased Person

1910 – 1968

79

Who was Arthur Piver?

Arthur Piver was a World War II pilot, an amateur sailor, author, printshop owner and legendary boatbuilder who lived in Mill Valley on San Francisco Bay and became "the father of the modern multihull. "

In the late 1950s and 1960s he designed and built a series of simple three-hulled, plywood yachts starting with a 16 footer and culminating in a 64-footer that was built in England for charter in the Caribbean. Piver crossed the Atlantic on his first ocean-going boat, the demountable 30 foot Nimble, departing from Swansee, Mass, stopping in the Azores, and successfully reaching Plymouth, England. He then began selling do-it-yourself plans. He thought anyone could build one of his boats even if they had no experience.

In 1962, Piver built himself a 35-foot ketch-rigged trimaran named Lodestar and sailed it around the Pacific Ocean via New Zealand. In England, Cox Marine, started building his boats and found a ready market, often with Americans who would sail them home. In 1964, Derek Kelsall bought a Lodestar bare hull, completed it with a flush deck, and entered the Observer Singlehanded Trans-Atlantic Race. After ten days, he was ahead of Eric Tabarly when he struck some flotsam and broke his daggerboard and rudder. He returned to England for replacements, restarted and still finished in a respectable time.

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Born
1910
Nationality
  • United States of America
Profession
Died
1968

Submitted
on July 23, 2013

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