I remember my Grandfather saying that 40 years ago, "they don't build them like they used to". In 2007 it is still true, but 40 years ago other companies were not building them like Chris Craft was. I'm sure Hatteras (who preceded CC into fiberglass cruiser constuction) had a learning curve CC was only too keen to observe, and from what I know Hatteras built a good boat then, and of course now too.
GM was building their fiberglass Corvette for less than 10 years before the decision was made at Chris Craft to "go fiberglass" in a big way. Whatever research was done, it's obvious Chris Craft made the right choices in products and construction techniques.
Chris Craft bought Thompson Boat Company of (Cortland) New York in 1962 and started construction on a plant next door. Their intent was to build a fiberglass boat factory, while phasing out wood construction slowly. By 1964 they had a fiberglass boat in production, along side several wood models marketed as Thompson by Chris Craft.
Of course, in 1964 Chris Craft also introduced their first fiberglass Commander too (the 38' Express), and by that time they had already done their homework on what resin and glass made the strongest hull. They called it the Duo-glass system. With some of the horror stories out there about fiberglass absorbing water, polyester turning to gelatin and weeping chemicals out, and blistering, I am impressed (along with the rest of the boating world, I'm sure) about the quality of products Chris Craft selected for their early fiberglass construction. It is almost an inert material. If there is any aging to be seen in the plug I recently removed for the transducer, it is not apparent.
At the top of this thread I posted evidence that CC was using the same resin and fiberglass construction on all their fiberglass boats at the time. These early boats were over-engineered in many ways, only to be discovered by enthusiasts many years later for being good deals because they were so well built. This included all of the Chris Craft Commander lineup, and everything that came out of the new Corsair Division (as CC renamed the Thompson plant), including the Lancers, all Corsair models, the small Commanders (19 and 23') and the fiberglass Sea Skiff from which the plug shown below was taken during a transducer installation in 2007, 41 years after someone decided to use the high quality resin instead of the low bid.
Above is something remarkable. This is a plug taken from the bottom of my 20-foot 1966 fiberglass Sea Skiff, and I'm comforted knowing this is the same type of material used on my 38 Commander of the same year. In the following years many fiberglass boat builders found out how to build boats with half or 1/3 (or less) material. Many of those lighter boats are no longer with us.
If Chris Craft built a 20' boat with a half inch bottom, those big battlewagons intended for rough seas are undoubtedly (as shown in the diagrams in this thread) built to near military standards. Chris Craft took great precautions to protect the corporate name with these early fiberglass boats, and we collectors and enthusiasts are the beneficiaries 4 decades later.
In the photo above, note the green color. That is the green gelcoat on this particular low production Sea Skiff model from Cortland (70 in 1966 and 10 more in 1967). There isn't much gelcoat there. On the hull sides where resistance to abrasion was more of an issue, I see some scratches in that 41 year old hull that indicate the gelcoat is much thicker. They put it where it counted, in other words. But look again at that bottom, very little gelcoat, high grade resin, and many layers of hand laid fiberglass cloth, and not one blister on the entire hull. I know the boat from which this sample was taken, lived at Lake George for 25 years, ran the Mohawk River, and spent time on Lake Ontario too. By contrast I sold a Sea Ray Pachanga a few years ago that lived a very very very pampered life, spending most of it's time in the basement of a high-rise office building. The pampered Sea Ray never spent more than a couple of weeks in the water at a time, and it was like new when I sold it (for a friend who owned it), except for a nasty problem with the hull below the waterline. At the time it sold, the hull had probably a hundred small blisters every couple of feet. They were small blisters, smaller than a half peanut, that Sea Ray experts know well, and learn to live with. At the time the Pachanga sold, the buyer called a Sea Ray resource and the guy said in so many words, "they all have it, don't worry about it". That hull was not painted, by the way. Sea Ray built some really fun boats in the past, the Pachanga is one of them, and they build very good products today. I use the Sea Ray example only because I have direct experience with it on that particular boat. I'm sure there could have been any number of other examples used. Obviously Chris Craft selected a better combination for the Commander and their associated smaller boats from Cortland, New York Corsair Divison.
Here's a bit of history for you! The metal plaque in this boat has Thompson, Chris Craft, and Corsair names on it. The Thompson name was soon phased out. The good news, was Chris Craft built these early sport boats and all the Commanders with premium materials.
I've been aboard some newer boats, including the Pachanga noted here, and stepping into the aft engine compartment onto the fiberglass bottom made me think I was going to step right through the hull. It was probably half the thickness of this rigid old 1966 hull.
Below are some examples of beautiful strong hulls built by Chris Craft in the past. The quality lives on....................
I would be fascinated to know of the evaluation process Chris Craft went through to select the "right glass" for their new boats. It may be an obscure detail lost in history, but the results live on in Commanders everywhere from Martinique, Spain, the Jersey Isles, Sweden, Michigan, New York, Floridia, Portland, and just about everywhere in between. Oh, did we forget Malta too (hi Malcom!)
Yes, they sure don’t make them like they used to.
regards, Paul