A PIONEER of the speed boating world, the iconic Chris Craft, has cruised into Thailand.

The first Chris Craft boat was built back in 1874 by the then 13-year-old Christopher Columbus Smith, and the brand became an American icon favored by movie stars and moguls.

Henry Ford, Katharine Hepburn, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Elvis Presley all had one, and Chris Craft boats have starred in a number of movies, including On Golden Pond (starring Hepburn), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and The Godfather series.

The boats have finally made their way to Phuket and are now available from Chrysalis in the Boat Lagoon marina in Ampur Muang.

They range in size from 20 feet up to 45 feet, and prices start at $US43,000 and go up from there, depending on size.

“The Chris Craft brand is known around the world, and they have been described as the Rolls Royce of power boats,” said sales manager Frank Van Hooijdonk.

“We had two at PIMEX, a Lancer 20 and a Corsair 28, which were both built in the US and shipped here especially for the show.

“We sold one boat to a guy who has a film studio, and at least 10 other people will probably buy,” he said.

“People know the Chris Craft name and the quality – that’s what makes the difference.”
Mr Van Hooijdonk said he would start selling the Chris Craft boats in Phuket, and then expand into the rest of Thailand.

The Chris Craft brand name has a long history.

Christopher Columbus Smith, born in Detroit in 1861, was fascinated by boats, and built his first wooden rowboat when he was only 13.

By the time he was 20, he and his brother Henry were working full-time, building high-quality boats to order.

The company earned a reputation for producing high-quality, mahogany powerboats, and by the early 1920s, Chris Craft was offering a one-year warranty, claiming its boats were ‘so nearly trouble-proof that this guarantee has cost an average of only $6 a boat’.

The good looks and quality attracted high-profile buyers such as car maker Henry Ford and newspaper magnate William Randolph Hurst.

America’s wealthiest families, the Vanderbilts, the Firestones, the Sloanes and the Morgans also bought Chris Crafts.

Stars of the stage and screen just had to have a one, and Katharine Hepburn, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Elvis Presley all bought them.

The boats were not just glamourous, they were also very fast, and in 1915, Smith built two race winners, the Baby Speed Demon and the Baby Reliance, which won the American Power Boat Association’s Gold Cup.

The following year, Smith produced a 26-foot runabout which could do an incredible 35 knots.

A year later, he had four different designs, including the 33-foot Baby Gar, which could hit 50 knots, and cost $US7500.

But it wasn’t only moguls and movie stars who dreamed of owning a Chris Craft, and the company set about making it possible for just about anyone to fulfil that dream.

Standardized production, in effect a hand-crafted assembly line, meant the high-quality boats were also affordable, and Chris Craft offered payment plans, putting its boats within reach of ordinary people who couldn’t come up with the full price in one go.

Thousands of people bought them, and the boats became an American icon.

Chris Smith died in 1939, but is still revered in the boating community.

The Mariners’ Museum of Newport News, Virginia, describes him as ‘the dean of American standardized boatbuilding’.

His son Jay took over, followed by his grandson, Harsen, and by the late 1950s, Chris Craft had 10 factories and 5000 employees making more than 8000 boats a year and generating an income of $US40 million.

Harsen was featured on the front cover of Time magazine in 1959, and was described as ‘the man who put the US family afloat’.

A year later, just as the boating industry was changing to fibreglass, the family sold the company.

The following two decades were not so good.

Chris Craft, which was still making mahogany boats, began losing market share to competitors working in fibreglass.

Ironically, Chris Craft was the first boatbuilder to use the new product, and the 19-foot Silver Arrow, launched in 1958, had a wooden hull covered with a shell of the new material.

But only 92 Silver Arrows were sold, and management decided to stick to timber hulls.

The last wooden-hulled boat was made in 1971, and since then all hulls have been made of fibreglass.

But the company continued to struggle, changing hands a number of times before going out of business in 2000 when its parent company, Outboard Marine Corp, collapsed.

Chris Craft was resurrected by turnaround specialist Stephen Julius, and by 1988 he had restructured the similarly ailing Riva and sold it on to Italy’s Ferretti Group.

But Julius missed having a top-class boat maker and cast around for another legendary brand to make his own.

He and his friend Steve Heese snapped up Chris Craft, re-hired key employees, and set about reviving the company.

The following year, Chris Craft, which was now based in Sarasota, Florida, made its comeback at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show.

The doors opened on the first day, a customer walked in and promptly bought a boat.

Chris Craft was back in business, and sales in the first year of new management totalled a staggering $26 million.

There are now 20 models in the Chris Craft line, ranging from the 19-foot Silver Bullet, with a top speed of 50 knots, to the 40-foot Roamer express cruiser, which can sleep four or more in luxury (depending on configuration) and has a range of 415 miles.

Since its formation almost 130 years ago, the company has built more than 250,000 boats.

Mr Van Hooijdonk, said it was an honor to be the company’s Thailand agent.

“People here can now experience the boat used by presidents and movie stars,” he said.

For more information call Frank Van Hooijdonk on 0819 784 740 or visit www.chriscraft.asia