Who is Chris Craft?

The answer to this question is usually: “It’s a type of boat, not a person.” However this is a debatable answer. Craft is not a last name, but Chris is certainly someone’s name. It’s the name of the legend’s creator, at that. Here’s the story of a brand that’s nearly 150 years old.

Chris C. Smith built his first wooden boat in 1874, when he was 13 years old. Years later, he built another boat to go duck hunting. When his friends liked it and asked him to build for them, boat building became Chris’s profession. In 1881, he began producing handbuilt boats with his brother Hank. Their company was named Chris-Craft.

Although Chris-Craft changed its name a couple of times, the fame of the flashy racing boats it produced spread from Detroit to the world. When it became popular among wealthy people like Henry Ford and William R. Hearst, it became the first civilian recreational boat brand in the late 1920s and expanded its market with mass production. The company name became Chris Smith & Sons Boat Co., and Jay Smith, the second generation to head the company for thirty years, took over. When the assembly line at its Michigan factory was commissioned, production costs decreased significantly and it began to gain popularity among the middle class. They previously supplied engines from Ford and Chrysler. They later signed with Hercules Engine Company.

In 1927, the affordable 22-feet Cadet model was introduced. Launched with an innovative advertising campaign, the Cadet could be purchased on installment plans, and now every American family could own a speedboat. The Great Depression, which occurred two years later, negatively affected Chris-Craft, like many other companies. The company endured the crisis by launching a series of low-priced speedboats and survived during World War II by producing small patrol boats for the US Navy.

Chris-Craft’s commercial success, which led to it becoming a generic model name, really took off in the 1950s. Designed for the US market, the new recreational craft series has elevated the company’s prestige to its peak in ten years. The Chris-Craft brand had become synonymous with recreational craft, and the brand had 159 different models. Almost all of them were sales leaders in their categories. Celebrities such as Dean Martin, Katharine Hepburn, Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley further popularized the brand and spread it around the world, while the mahogany body, teak coating and brass hardware became a design icon. To meet demand, the company not only increased production but also innovated in materials and manufacturing techniques. In 1955, it launched its first fiberglass boat, the Cobra, and established a steel hull division. Metal boats followed, and the company was sold by the Smith family to NAFI Corporation in 1960.

The company, which has changed hands several times, is currently known as Winnebago and continues to produce beautifully designed, modern boats under the Chris-Craft brand, in styles reminiscent of the company’s golden era. For those who consider classic boats a lifestyle or hobby, the Chris-Craft Antique Boat Club is a fantastic resource. It is run by people who are truly passionate about Chris-Crafts from the golden age of wooden boating and keeps the legend alive.