Christopher Columbus Smith
| Private | |
| Founded | 1874 |
| Founder | Christopher Columbus Smith |
| Products | Boats |
| Owner | Stellican Ltd. |
| Website | www |
Coordinates: 42°36′48″N 82°32′43″W / 42.6132735°N 82.5453808°W
Chris-Craft Boats, formerly Chris Smith and Sons Boat Co., is a manufacturer of boats. It was sold in 1960 to NAFI which would take the Chris-Craft name. It is currently owned by the private equity firm Stellican Ltd.
Chris Smith built his first wooden boat in 1874 at the age of 13. Years later, he built a duck hunting boat. His friends liked the way he built them, and they asked him to build them one. This was technically the start of the Chris Craft Boat Co. He soon began to build more boats and joined his brother Hank in 1881 to begin producing boats full-time. In 1922, the brothers joined with other partners to form the Smith and Sons Boat Company. The company name was changed to Chris-Craft in 1930.
The Detroit area company became well known for their sleek racing boats in the 1910s and 1920s. Chris-Craft sold high end powerboats to wealthy patrons such as Henry Ford and William Randolph Hearst. In the late 1920s, Chris-Craft extended its market into the middle class when it became one of the first mass producers of civilian pleasure boats. The company began assembly line production at their Algonac, Michigan plant, dramatically lowering production costs. Formerly, most powerboats had been hand-built.
Engines were supplied by both Ford, Chrysler, and by the Hercules Engine Company in later models.
In 1927 the company introduced the Cadet, an affordable 22' runabout. At the time, the domain of speedboats was largely confined to the wealthy. Its innovative advertising campaign promised a piece of "the good life" to the growing American middle class. The company sold its boats on the installment plan, making them among the first powerboats available to the general population.
...
Wikipedia