138 YEARS OF CHRIS-CRAFT
In 1861, Abraham Lincoln became president, the American Civil War broke out and Christopher Columbus Smith was born in St Clair County, Michigan. Chris Smith built his first boat aged 13 and opened a boatbuilding yard with his brother Hank in 1881.
They built rowboats, sailboats and steam-powered launches for affluent businessmen. When the internal combustion engine arrived around the turn of the century, Chris Smith saw its potential for boats, just as Henry Ford was figuring out how to power wheeled vehicles.
The Smith brothers’ first speedboat was powered by a 2hp Stens engine and achieved a then-blistering 7mph. Chris realised that higher speeds required a dynamic re-think of hull shape. Six years in a row, up to 1921, his boats won the Gold Cup at the American Powerboat Association Race.
By then customers had nicknamed the boats Chris-craft and the company made it official in 1924.
In the late 1920s, Chris-craft became one of the first mass-producers of civilian pleasure boats and offered them on installment plans. Lake boats were no longer a rich man’s privilege. They were usually powered by Ford and Chrysler and, later, Hercules engines.
Chris-craft survived the Great Depression with the introduction of low-priced powerboats. Chris Smith died in 1939. Under his son’s management, Chris-craft built small patrol boats and more than 10,000 military landing craft, including some used at the Normandy Landing in 1944. The heyday came in the 1950s when Chris-craft offered 159 models, often featuring liberal use of mahogany, teak, and brass.
Chris-craft manufactured its first fibreglass boat in 1955. It moved to Florida in the 1960s and built its last wooden boat in 1972. ChrisCraft was bought by Winnebago Industries in 2018.
Chris-craft owners have included Dean Martin, Kathryn Hepburn, Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley and even the boats have starred in movies. Henry Fonda crashed a replica 1950 Chris-craft Sportsman in On Golden Pond (1981) and Bruce Willis chased the bad guy in a 1956 Chris-craft 21-foot Capri in Striking Distance (1993).
petrol engine is not smart. Instead, small power boats pushed her and her volatile cargo to Rocks Road.
In later life, Aurora was powered, but she was engineless when David bought her. He sourced an overhauled Stuart Turner P55M 8hp petrol motor from Golden Bay and designed a freshwater cooling system with copper pipes running beneath the hull.
“I don’t want sea water coming through the engine,” he says. He estimates her speed at 6 knots.
Atop the centre thwart are two charming, round tanks painted in Hawthorn Green, custom-made by Stainless Solutions in stainless steel. One is the petrol tank; the other is for the cooling water. David considered hiding them under the front coaming but decided 1930s thinking would have preferred a simple installation. The water tank’s retro style temperature gauge from Trademe was just perfect.
“It’s a good honest work boat and that’s what I wanted it to look like,” says David.
The judges agreed and honoured the hard slog of an amateur restoration. Event director Pete Rainey says Aurora captures the essence of the event.
“The Jens Hansen trophy for Best Vessel Overall has gone to all sorts of boats from perfectly restored craft to real workhorses of the sea,” he says. “Aurora will be familiar to older Nelsonians. When her work as an explosives tender was done, she became an excursion boat for trips to Haulashore Island and the lighthouse and was
then handed over to the Sea Scouts.”
Cost-wise, the trailer represented almost as much as the boat. David modified the unsprung trailer and had it blasted, arc-sprayed and clear-sealed at Galbraith Sandblasting and Powdercoating in Nelson to complement Aurora’s looks.
FINESSE – BEST NEW CRAFT
A replica of a 19ft Chris-craft racing runabout got the gong for the Show’s Best New Craft. And as owner/builder Troy Deavoll explains, his inspiration came from My Love – a similar ChrisCraft he spied at the 2015 Nelson Antique and Classic Boat Show. He was smitten by the apple pie of retro American boating and decided to build one. Finesse is the result (see story page 124).
On her first outing – at this year’s show – she proved to be a crowd favourite, also winning the People’s Choice Award. And Johnny Malthus – My Love’s owner and restorer – says Finesse is the best built Chris-craft he’s ever seen.
And that can happen when a cabinetmaker builds a boat.