One of the alltime great photos of a 38' Commander at speed. Look at those throttles, they're wide open!!
Again, this is one of those photographs the photographer works for days to get. Can you imagine being in the photo boat at this moment, listening to the sounds, and smelling the spray, watching this beautiful hull come crashing by??? It was tough duty, and someone had to do it. Lucky someone!
Ooops, and now we know who that someone was! From a note posted back in August of 2007.....
Thank you so much for publishing this article..it has special significance for me, as Don Schwarm, the official photographer for Chris Craft, was my uncle.
Don's photo boat, which he kept behind his house near Sunrise Blvd, was a bare hull commander, maybe a 31', with 427's or 430's and a photo tower. Ugly but fast! He said there wasn't anything out there he couldn't run with. I never got to ride on it, but as a teenager living neat Daytona, I sure knew what big V-8's were, and remember it tied to his dock.
Don came from a boating family. His father, Charles Schwarm, raced hydroplanes on the Ohio River, and his brother, Bob Schwarm, who still lives in Ft. Lauderdale, has owned Chris Crafts, taught boating courses, and is still active with the power squadron. When not taking photos for Chris Craft, Don was a partner in Sante, Schwarm, and Sheldon, commercial photographers in Ft. Lauderdale.
Again, thanks.
Bill Frondorf