The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Boaters congregate at marina over vessel
Whether the company knew it or not, when ChrisCraft Boats introduced its first line of all-fiberglass production vessel — the Commander — it created a niche that would attract boating enthusiasts around the world to its unique charms.
First produced in 1964, the Chris-Craft Commander immediately garnered attention for the recreational boating community for its sleek lines; large, well-appointed cabin and living area and sturdy, reinforced fiberglass hull.
Today, the various ChrisCraft Commander models have become the epicenter of a boating subculture whose members hail from all over the world. And likely nowhere in the world was the camaraderie surrounding the Chris-Craft Commander boats more alive and well than at Mentor Lagoons Marina during the three-day 2018 Chris-Craft Commander Club National Rendezvous.
The event, which runs July 27-29, attracted dozens of participants and about 10 boats, said Charlene Pike, the Chris-Craft Commander Club’s archivist.
About 2:30 p.m. on July 28 she said the event was running smoothly and its participants were having a great time in great weather in a great city.
“It’s been absolutely wonderful,” she said. “The weather has been super and the people here have just been a joy to work with. Seriously - the hospitality has just been superb. I mean, I’ve been doing event planning for years and years and, honestly, this stands out as probably the best I’ve had so far. And that’s easy to say. Anything we’ve asked has been no problem. Everyone here at the marina, the city officials we’ve worked with, Rob Kneen (from Lawnfield Inn & Suites) and Sky Bistro have all just been wonderful.”
She said the plan for a Chris-Craft Commander Club rendezvous in Mentor was hatched back in December when she met Kneen, who mention he happened to have a hotel in Mentor just a hop, skip and a jump from two local marinas, along with a restaurant with plenty of room to host outof-town mariners for such an event.
And so it went. She said planning got serious in January and everything came together famously.
But don’t just take it from the rendezvous’ chef organizer. The boaters who motored into town seemed to think it was a great event, too: a chance to commiserate over their favorite boats, talk shop and enjoy each other’s company.
Take Paul Phillips, for example. As the owner of Phillips Marine in Grand River, he didn’t have to travel too far to enjoy the event and show off a Commander restoration project he holds close to his heart: a 1965, 38-foot Chris-Craft Commander named Murphy’s Law which was passed on to him by customer-turnedfriend, the late John J. Murphy, who brought the boat to his shop five years ago, looking to have it restored.
“I said I’d like to do something a little different with it,” Phillips said, pointing out the fact that most of the Commanders on hand are painted a kind of creamy, off-white hue. “He said: ‘OK. It’s your canvas. I trust you ‘cause I’ve seen what you’ve done.”
So Phillips decided to paint her white, he said of the work in progress, adding that they just don’t make ‘em like these anymore.
“You just can’t buy anything like this anymore,” he said. “So that’s why it’s nice to get together like this. It’s the love of the water, the appreciation of the craft that brings us all together like this. It’s just a good time.”
In another 38-foot vessel — a 1967 Commander sedan named Summer Song
First produced in 1964, the ChrisCraft Commander immediately garnered attention for the recreational boating community for its sleek lines; large, wellappointed cabin and living area and sturdy, reinforced fiberglass hull.
and hailing from Geneva Marina - a group of Commander connoisseurs relaxed, shared memories, traded stories, tips and the tricks of the trade before catching the shuttle to Sky Bistro for the rendezvous’ awards banquet.
Owners Pat & Ron Smoker, who live in Austinburg and, like Phillips, were gracious enough to invite this reporter on board to check out their floating vacation property, as it were, shared their take on the event and Chris-Craft Commander ownership in general.
“It’s like a moving vacation home,” Ron Smoker said. “It’s very seasonal. We put it in the water in May and take it out in September.”
Of course, the short season he and Pat pursue can be attributed to Northeast Ohio’s lengthy winter and the ice on Lake Erie that goes along with it.
So, he said, a gathering like the one at Mentor Lagoons is a special treat.
“There’s a certain camaraderie about it,” he said. “We’re all interested in restoring, to a certain extent, some nostalgia we’re trying to recapture.”
Poland, Ohio resident Mac McCreery, who also owns a 38-foot Commander Express sedan named Pioneer, concurred.
“We like to exchange information and that’s very important,” he said. “You come to a gathering like this and you check out the other boats. You pick up a lot of tricks and tips. Maybe you see something on someone else’s boat that you might want on your own boat — or not. But you get a lot of different input and you get to learn a lot. That’s important.”
Perhaps no one at the 2018 Chris-Craft Commander Rendezvous embodied the commitment and dedication ingrained in the vessels’ following than a fellow from Sweden who attended the event.
Alarik von Hofsten hails from Värmdö Municipality, Stockholm County in east central Sweden and owns one of five Chris-Craft Commanders — a 31-foot Express which sports a hard top - in that country.
Twenty years ago, Hofsten — with only minimal help from what the Internet was at the time — purchased his 1966 Commander from some 4,000 miles away, had it refurbished and today enjoys the craft with his family, exploring the 25,000 islands of varying sizes throughout the Stockholm Archipelago in the Baltic Sea.
He said his affection for boating stems from the fact that his father, who was a commander in the Royal Swedish Navy, had him sailing since he was a kid.
After years piloting sailing vessels, he and his family decided it was time to move into the motoring realm, trading the burden of making the trip with a sailing vessel to where it could be properly launched, along with all the labor-intensive tasks associated with setting sail for the ease and comfort associated with piloting a motor cruiser like a Commander.
“In the summer of 1997, we said: ‘Let’s have a look around at some (power boats). I knew of a reputable broker in Stockholm and, there, the first boat I saw was a 31 Commander,” he said. “It looked good to me. It looked like a boat should look, I thought.”
After about a month’s worth of negotiating, he said he finally decided to “pull the trigger” om the purchase. Unfortunately, though, it had by that time been sold.
So, to make a long story short, he found the boat he owns now in Florida, had a consultant look it over for him, decided it was a worthy purchase and made it.
But that was just the beginning. After buying the boat, Hofsten had to arrange for it to be freightered to Sweden, have it shipped there to his location and then have a crew restore it about a nine-month project.
Dealing with all those moving parts seems to have been worthwhile, however, as Hofsten beams when he talks and shares photos of his Commander.
He probably summed it up best: “It’s good fun.”