Chris Craft Today

Here is an article I ran across today on line that I thought some people might find interesting. I grew up on Chris Craft boats and I still admire the old ones.

Chris-Craft: Charting a New Course for a Storied Boatmaker - DailyFinance

Interesting and for old time boaters.... I'm sure they can relate.

Todays boaters are not yesteryears....

It will be interesting to see who and what kind of boats survive the next big fuel jump..if there is one....

If for any reason fuel prices reverse...the same interesting question will apply...

Even top notch boats that don't fill a niche, ones that just sell, may not survive for long....at least not like the old days unless they are REALLY quick to adapt (which too many in the past haven't been).

As long as the "suits" run Chris Craft the bottom line will prevail and quality will suffer. Look at what happened to Tollycraft when it went corporate.

To me, the only connection between Chris Craft today and Chris Craft of old is the name. It's really just like a new company was launched and they own the name. The boats are nothing alike.

I agree BandB. The days of the indestructible hulls and "Styled in Fiberglass" of the Commanders and the Catalinas are gone. I think the article mentions taking some styling cues from the old runabouts Chris Craft used to make, but other than that, it's just the name that remains...

Interesting read. I didn't know that Chris Craft sold out in 1960. This makes sense to me now.

I think the late model Chris-Craft launches are gorgeous boats, and their price tag reflects that. I see quite a few of them around here with the pretty blue hulls.

ronlord said:

I think the late model Chris-Craft launches are gorgeous boats, and their price tag reflects that. I see quite a few of them around here with the pretty blue hulls.

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+1 to that.

ronlord said:

I think the late model Chris-Craft launches are gorgeous boats, and their price tag reflects that. I see quite a few of them around here with the pretty blue hulls.

Click to expand...

I think they are very nice. Just hard for me to think of them as Chris Craft. But then I know there are young buyers today who don't even know there was another Chris Craft.

1970 Chris Craft runabout

Yes, they are beautiful boats. Good to se they ar getting back to being a classic boat after their foray into the mainstream for a while.

I have a buddy who was buying up some some of the old classics, restoring and reselling them. He actually made money at it. I joined him for for a cruise to the Chris Craft rendezvous in Maple Bay BC. I was drooling over some of the boats. Polished mahogany and chromed hemi Chryslers go so well together.

Currently living and working in Pompano Beach, a stone's throw from the site of the old Chris Craft plant (closed in '79.) Always loved the mahogany runabouts - and keep our '55 19-foot Capri at our lake place in western New York...

Before moving to FL, I never saw one of the new models except online. It would be a very nice boat for the lake we lived on but no dealer within 200 miles. Their dealer network isn't really very strong.

Looking other places, no dealer close to Texas or Tennessee. Huge boating areas. We lived on largest lake in NC and never saw them.

And before you say it's price restricting their ability in those areas, Cobalt costs more and was huge on our lake.

There was a Chris-Craft factory very near where I lived as a very young boy. Later my grandparents lived near there. I can remember the boats lined up on the yard, the sound of machinery, and the smell of the mahogany wood. I loved seeing the boats. You can probably see how it could fire a young lads imagination. They later introduced fiberglass to the line, but not in the hulls. They molded the trickier curved pieces of the painted cabin sides and tops. For those interested in the history here's a link.

Remembering Chris-Craft of Chattanooga - 10/17/2006 - Chattanoogan.com