The following years saw the hulls used again, but under the Lancer nameplate, and although they looked like dead ringers (and they were), the Lancers used outdrive power, as did the XK-19. The days of the Vdrive were over when the outdrive came upon the scene. In addition, the Lancer 23 was also offered with a traditional center mounted inboard configuration, making that boat a rare model too.
Here are a couple of photos of the Lancer 23, and you can see the obvious similarities of the hull, but notice that short aft fiberglass deck! That is a function of using the transdrive or the true inboard configuration in the photo immediately below, something the 23' Commander should have been?) Beautiful boat, eh?
This one below is obviously with the transdrive, part of the evolution.
As you can see, the Lancer 23 is a popular boat, photo from Mike O’brien. These are really all 23’ Commanders that have evolved into a transdrive model.
With the transdrive, much of the power system is hanging off the rear of the boat and not consuming space inside. Here is a photo of the 427 V-drive, it’s all contained inside, but as you can see, it’s a hoss!
The fastest way you can readily recognize the 23’ Commander, is from the large aft deck behind the rear seat. Note how much fiberglass there is there, covering the engine and V drive assembly. Now look at a 23’ Lancer, you can see there is practically no rear deck behind the rear seat, and this is why the outdrive was so popular, because it gave a lot of space back to the interior of the boat. Mike O’brien, owner of the 23’ Commander in these photos, and Mercrewser, owner of the 19’ Commander, are members of a very select club of Vdrive Chris Craft runabouts. There simply are not many of these boats still out there in service.
The 23’ Commander was offered with 327F, 327Q and 427 power. Mike’s is a 327Q. Finding a 427 would be a treat, because the boat would have the character of a waterborne 427 Cobra, and it would probably sound the part, too.
The 23’ Commanders were all offered with blue hulls, and this is another way to spot these rare boats. Chris Craft also offered a 42’ Sports Cruiser in a blue gelcoat, and this color is a sign of the times. True to form with all Commanders, this was not a lightweight boat, weighing in at a strong 4324 to 4625 pounds, depending upon power selection. With 50 gallons aboard, you could run the 427 model about five hours at 2500 rpm before having to return to the fuel dock. Of course, with all that power and a redline at 4000 rpm, I am sure few 427 boats actually ran for much more than 5 hours away from the fuel dock.
The 23 Commander is a big, strong, unique and rare hull with a fairly deep V from bow to stern, making it a very stable and smooth riding boat. Although the subsequent Lancer boats of the same dimension also shared the great performing hull design, they were either fitted with transdrives or some with a true inboard configuration. They are all great boats, and I would enjoy owning any one of these models, because they all share beautiful lines penned by Dick Avery.
Hope you enjoyed the photo essay!
Regards,
Paul