Chris-Craft, Inc.

Type	private
Founded	2000
Founder(s)	Stephen Julius Stephen Heese
Headquarters	Sarasota, Florida,  United States
Industry	manufacturer
Products	powerboat
Parent	Stellican, Ltd.
Website	http://www.chriscraft.com

Chris-Craft, Inc. is a privately held American manufacturer of civilian powerboats based in Sarasota, Florida. The original company was founded in the late 19th century by Christopher Columbus Smith and became famous for its mahogany hulled powerboats of the 1920s through the 1950s.

Contents 1 Original Company 2 Licensed out 3 New Chris-Craft 4 External links 5 References

[edit] Original Company

Smith built his first wooden boat in 1874 when he was 13 years old. He soon began to build more boats and joined his brother Henry in 1881 to begin producing boats full time. In 1910, the brothers joined with other partners to form the Smith Ryan Boat & Engine Company. The company name was changed to Chris-Craft in 1924.

The Detroit area company became well known for their sleek racing boats in the 1910s and 1920s. Chris-Craft sold high end powerboats to wealthy patrons such as Henry Ford and William Randolph Hearst. In the late 1920s, Chris-Craft extended its market into the middle class when it became one of the first mass producers of civilian pleasure boats. The company began assembly line production at their Algonac, Michigan, plant, thus dramatically lowering production costs. Until then, most powerboats had been built by hand.

In 1927 the company introduced the Cadet, an affordable 22' runabout. At the time, the domain of speedboats was largely confined to the wealthy. Its innovative advertising campaign promised a piece of "the good life" to the growing American middle class. The fact that the company sold its boats on the installment plan made them among the first powerboats available to the general population.

The Great Depression robbed many Americans of discretionary income, and Chris-Craft sales suffered. The company introduced a line of low-priced powerboats to stay solvent. By 1935, a 15.5' Utility boat could be bought for as little as US$406. During World War II, the company produced small patrol boats and launches for the U.S. Navy.

After the war, Chris Craft introduced an all new lineup of civilian pleasure boats just in time for the massive American consumer expansion of the 1950s. That decade marked the height of company prestige and the brand name Chris-Craft became virtually synonymous with pleasure boating. The company offered 159 different models and was the sales leader in many categories of small civilian powerboats.

The company sold high-end boats to famous customers and Hollywood stars such as Dean Martin, Katharine Hepburn, Frank Sinatra, and Elvis Presley. Their boats were often made from the finest mahogany and were considered to be among the best available. They were also easy to operate, a must for their "weekend sailor" owners. In some circles, owning a Chris-Craft was considered de rigueur. Even their lower-priced boats were considered to be of high quality, often featuring such luxury items as a liberal use of mahogany, teak, and brass.

In 1957, Chris-Craft Corporation added a metal-boats division, designated the Roamer Steel Boats Division (RSBD)—founded upon its purchase of the Roamer Boat Company, now known as Chris Craft Roamers.

The company continued to be independent until it was acquired by Shields & Company and National Automotive Fibers in 1960. They renamed the company Chris-Craft Industries, Incorporated.

[edit] Licensed out

Chris-Craft Industries sells its boat division in 1981 to Murray Industries. Industries retains the Chris-Craft trademark and license it Murray. Outboard Marine Corporation acquires the company in 1989. Outboard goes bankrupty in 2000 and is purchased by Genmar. Genmar sells the Chris-Craft division to Stellican, Ltd. Stellican purchases the Chris-Craft trademark from News Corporation thus reuniting the two parts of the company.^[1]

[edit] New Chris-Craft

Chris-Craft, Inc. currently offers sixteen models of runabouts, center consoles and express cruisers ranging from 20' to 43' with MSRPs starting at around US$42,000. The management plans to continue to expand the model range in the future.

The Chris-Craft name and distinctive look of its mahogany hull have become such American icons that the boat has been used in numerous films and television shows. The boat was featured in the films House Boat, Donavan's Reef, Back to School, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Godfather II, On Golden Pond, The Dirty Dozen, Striking Distance and on the television series The Sopranos. A Chris-Craft also made an appearance in the film Pearl Harbor, but experts note that the film, set in 1941, anachronistically featured a 1950s era Capri. Of current models, the Corsair 25 was seen in Mission: Impossible III. The Launch 25 can be seen in Fool's Gold (2008 film) and the Lancer 20 in The Proposal (film).

[edit] External links

• Chris-Craft
• Chris-Craft Antique Boat Club
• Chris Craft Commander Club
• Chris Craft Forum

[edit] References

1. ^ "Everything Old Is New Again: The New Chris Craft" (html). boat digest.com. Force 12 Media, LLC. January 7, 2007. http://www.boatdigest.com/node/151. Retrieved 2009-07-20.