I think it's important to know what else was happening in the boat building business back when CC made the decision to "take the plunge" into fiberglass boat building. Chris Craft was a fairly conservative organization at the time, they were dominating the boat building scene, and they had a very keen eye for competition.
Their marketing machine was very active too, with elaborate and highly detailed progections, analysis, and strategic planning for every single boat line, and model. Chris Craft knew how much profit each boat type, and each model within each type was bringing in (I've seen their 1966 marketing plan in it's entirety, and it's a fascinating huge document that really shows the organized approach they had to design, manufacturing, distribution, and sales.)
Chis Craft wasn't the first company to jump into building fiberglass cruisers. They let some other companies do that first, and they had the opportunity to watch. Hatteras, in particular, was out ahead of Chris Craft, and when CC board members saw their first fiberglass Hatteras, they may have seen the writing on the wall right then and there, and it may have put their fiberglass research and development operation into overdrive. I suspect that was the case.
Trojan, on the other hand, never really got on the fiberglass band wagon, sadly, because they built a very high quality wood boat. Trojan ownership intentionally avoided fiberglass and it was clearly the wrong thing to do. Essentially, they put their heads in the sand and tried to pretend fiberglass boats weren't out there, and the company eventually went under as sales dropped when people began buying fiberglass boats. The company then found themselves without the necessary cash to get into the fiberglass business and the doors closed.
So here are a couple of links to illustrate what some of the other manufacturers were doing at the time CC was secretly planning on getting into the fiberglass boat building business. This first link is about the early fiberglass days at Hatteras, thanks to Dave Mehl for posting this.
http://www.network54.com/Forum/424840/message/1171647862
This second reference link talks about the use of similar resins and fiberglass on some of the smaller boats of the era, and it also has some nice blueprint construction drawings submitted by Terry Hart, showing how the 45' Tournament Fisherman was put together.
http://www.network54.com/Forum/424840/message/1170987919
For your reading enjoyment !
Paul
