Philippe Riviere

Philippe Rivière is the independent French naval architect behind the boats the production yards never dared: custom, high-performance multihulls drawn for people who build them. His method is wood-epoxy strip-planking — red cedar, typically — married to carbon fiber: a technique that lets a home builder or a boutique yard turn out a hull that is strong, light and effectively unsinkable, without ever paying for a factory mold. His conviction runs against the thin-hull fashion: wider, tulip-shaped main hulls that keep the living volume a cruising family needs without surrendering the speed three hulls promise.

The portfolio reads like a French amateur-builder's dream shelf: the Sirius 26C pocket trimaran (drawn with Éric Magré), the Objectif Rhum 39 solo offshore tri, and the Polynésie 42 and 45 — big bluewater cruising trimarans in the strip-planked school. Our shelf holds one: a 2005 Polynésie 42, lying ashore in Guadeloupe, VAT paid — the designer's philosophy, afloat and for sale. One-off boats carry their architect's name the way production boats carry a brand's, which is why this page exists.

The honest notes: a Rivière design is only as good as the hands that built it — with amateur construction, the survey inspects the BUILD as much as the boat, and the plans-versus-execution conversation is the whole game, as the buying guide insists. Weigh what a one-off costs against the price guide's production benchmarks, and find the rest of the fleet at the trimarans for sale.