When you consider the history of Chris-Craft Industries, you are almost looking at the history of traditional sailing in the United States from the early twentieth century till the middle. Christ Craft Industries, based in Sarasota, Florida earned their name for its founder, the patriotically named Christopher Columbus Smith who founded the company in the late nineteenth century.
To say that young Christopher Smith was dedicated to building top quality wooden, especially mahogany hulled sailing boats from an early age is not an exaggeration. History shows that Chris actually built his first boat in 1877, when he was just 13 years old.
He established his first boat building company in 1881, in partnership with his brother Henry, and their success was almost immediate. In the early part of the 20th century, they formed a partnership with the Ryan family. In 1924 the company was renamed Chris-Craft, with Christopher at the helm, who at the age of sixty had almost fifty years of boat building history under his belt. Their client list of these days included many captains of industry and commerce.
Realizing the dangers of committing themselves to only the very top end of the market, the company began to design and produce a range of boats that would appeal to the rapidly growing “middle class” of North America, who were taking more and more of an interest in the pleasures of sailing.
In 1927, Chris-Craft announced the introduction of the Cadet, which could almost be described as the boating equivalent of the Model T Ford.
Produced at Chris-Craft’s new plant in Algonac, Michigan, where many of the production concepts and facilities were drawn from the car industry, production and sales ran into the thousands.
The success of the Cadet was based on three factors:
1. Its pleasant design and solid finish.
2. Its competitive price.
3. The fact that Chris-Craft allowed the boat to be purchased through installments.
What Christopher Smith didn’t take into account was the great depression of the early thirties, which put a temporary but fairly dramatic halt to the rise of spending power of the middle classes.
Chris-Craft were doubly hit as they were still carrying finance on many of the boats they had sold, and times for the company were rocky indeed. Sad though it may be to say World War Two saw a revival of fortunes for Chris-Craft as the returned to full production making small patrol boats and launches for the U.S. Navy.
After the war things continued to boom for Chris Craft with the launch of a new range of pleasure boats. At one time the company offered a range of more than 150 models of sailing boats and powerboats. There range encompassed simple craft made in wood to their top end ranges which remained an attraction to those who wanted the best and were prepared to pay for it.
Alert to changes in the industry, Chris-Craft began to also produce boats in glass fiber and later in aluminum. Today you will find Chris Craft boats for sale throughout North America and all over the World, Their place in the history of the development of the sailing industry is undisputed, and Christopher Columbus Smith has played his role as much as his namesake.