REBUILD OF 1938 26ft CHRIS-CRAFT ENCLOSED CRUISER "CHRIS"

Many reading this will doubt my sanity but while I was rebuilding my 1961 62ft Feadship TIKY, I was also rebuilding a 26ft wooden Chris-Craft that was built in 1938

I first saw CHRIS - a "26ft Enclosed Cruiser" - in 2006 as a totally rotted and barely afloat wreck, for sale on the lower Thames in the East End of London (see last photo attached). I fell instantly in love with her and being blinded to the all too obvious amount of work required to keep her afloat, let alone restore her, I was desperate to buy her. Naïvely thinking that no one else would want her, I stupidly haggled about the price, trying to get £100 off the £600 the seller was asking just to cover the cost of the timber he'd bought in order to restore her- but to my total shock and great disappointment she was sold to a chap in West Country. This fella eventually realised that she was too big a project for him and a year later I bought her from him (for the £600 he had paid plus cost of delivery to Norfolk wher i have a house , which ironically, was several hundred quid more than it originally would have cost me to get her delivered from the Thames).

In any event, I took her to a local boatyard in Norfolk, the historic Woods Dyke Boatyard in Horning , and without any fixed plan or spec – always a mistake – I basically said, “get on with it”. The yard got a couple of retired local shipwrights working on her part-time and during the course of 2006/07 they replanked the topsides and tried to fix up the rest of the boat.

In late 2007 Woods Dyke Yard was sold to be redeveloped as waterfront houses so we moved the now half-completed CHRIS to the Phoenix Fleet Boatyard at Potter Heigham. There, the owner of the yard, Robin Richardson, gave me the unwelcome news that although the planking of the topsides had been done well, much if not all of the rest of the work that had been done previously wasn’t satisfactory and that if I wanted her to look even half-way decent, and to stay looking that way, we’d basically have to start again.

After not a lot of thought, I figured she was worth the time and money that would be required and once again said, “get on with it” , so between early 2008 and December 2011, Robin entirely rebuilt her in teak and mahogany. Other than the stem, some sections of the chine, a number of frames and part of the centreline (all of which we kept in order that she could be considered to be an original 1938 boat), and of course the original bronze fittings such as the original 1938 Chis-Craft searchlight - although many were missing and were replaced via Ebay - all of which were re-chromed. Literally everything else was replaced, so she is now effectively a brand new wooden boat, and a testimony to Norfolk craftsmanship (and I hope I will look as good as CHRIS does when I’m 76 years old).

As anyone reading this probably knows, the Chris-Craft Company was founded by Chris Smith in 1922 as the Smith and Sons Boat Company and soon became well-known for building successful racing boats, which was becoming a popular pastime for the wealthy. In the late 1920s, the company expanded its market into the growing American middle class and mass-producing pleasure boats on an assembly line at their Algonac Michigan plant, thus dramatically lowering production cost. A clever advertising campaign promised a piece of "the good life” and the company made it available via an affordable installment payment plan. In 1930, the company changed its name to Chris-Craft and is still going strong, albeit having faced bankruptcy and having changed hands many times.

164 "26ft Enclosed Cruisers” such as CHRIS were built in 1937-38 but between 1934 and the 1950s (when Chris-Craft started to go "modern" with its designs), over 3000 of the “Enclosed Cruisers” were built with various modifications and in various sizes from 25ft to 40ft, (and even a few at 50ft, which in those days was considered very large indeed). Despite so many having been built only a relatively small number of them have survived and in fact only a handful of the smaller “Enclosed Cruisers “ such as CHRIS still exist. That is hardly surprising though, as Chris-Craft were very lightly built by unskilled, or at best semi-skilled and often ex-automotive workers who in any event were not trained shipwrights - presumably with built-in obsolescence in mind that would make for repeat orders. In fact, in the 1930s, the life expectancy of a CC bottom was only 7-10 years!

Unfortunately I have no idea of CHRIS's history except that the UK car dealer Arthur Bray of Dorset originally imported her in to the UK in 1938. When I bought her she was called CHARLESTON and I was told that she had spent part of her life on the Norfolk Broads before being moved to the Thames, but that may be hearsay. However, from the hull number on the original builder's plate, the Mariners Museum in Newport Virginia, who now hold the Chris-Craft archive, were able to send me copies of the original shipping manifest which showed her exact original spec, down to the colour of the anti-foul and upholstery and even the type of cooker that was fitted.

I wanted to keep her as original as possible but she had to be a practical and useable day-boat so we slightly changed the interior layout, doing away with the stbd Pullman berth and the fixed helm seat in order to create more space. I wanted to keep the original chromed bronze engine, gearbox and steering controls which worked via a series of heavy and cumbersome bronze linkages but Robin adapted modern Morse and Vetus control units to work with them and the original chrome instrument panel was also retained but fitted with modern instruments. We fitted H&C pressurised water (heated via a calorifier using engine cooling water) and a diesel-fired galley hob/heater, so there is no gas to worry about! We lined the hull with sound insulation hidden behind a slatted teak lining and fitted a Halyard Aqua-Drive thrust bearing to keep engine vibration and noise to a minimum. The original opening side-windows - which had automobile wind up/down mechanisms – were impossible to keep watertight (and were a major contribution to her poor condition) so we replaced them with fixed windows in s/s frames. We also decided against replacing the bottom with double-diagonal planking with calico in between, as per original, but instead fitted a double layer of marine ply, skinned with scrim and epoxy. I was aware that if not done correctly, this method can cause long-term problems if water gets in between the layers but in fact she has just been surveyed after 3 years being constantly afloat and she is bone-dry with absolutely no signs of water ingress into the skins.

We fitted a 38 HP Nanni 4 cyl. diesel instead of the long-since lost 6 cyl. Chris-Craft 150HP petrol engine that she would originally have had (which would have propelled her +/- 25knts). This new diesel gives us only 8kts at full revs but seeing as the speed limit on the Broads is 5MPH, that's no loss. In fact with the knowledge of hindsight I should have fitted an even smaller engine. Because she now runs at a far slower speed than original she was a pig to steer but we've just replaced the original small bronze rudder with a larger semi-balanced s/s rudder, which makes handling so much easier than before.

A further point of interest is that we coated her cabin sides and cockpit brightwork with Epiphanes but the decks were coated in Coelan, the latter having held up brilliantly for 4 years now, whereas significant areas of the Epiphanes coatings had to be entirely revarnished after only 2 years. I defy anyone to tell the difference between the Coelan and the Epiphanes brightwork, and in fact I now wish I had done all the brightwork in Coelan.

I hadn't in fact been out on CHRIS since taking her home from the Phoenix yard after she was finished because in May 2012 I fell seriously ill with some unspecified infection that landed me in ITU for 9 weeks so the little excursion I had on her last week with my 2 Border Terriers Rufus & Puppy was only my 2nd time aboard in the 8 years that I've owned her!

She is an ideal boat for our purposes – basically, apart from being a true “Classic”, she is a handsome, easily handled, family dayboat with a large cockpit. With her 8ft 8inch beam and narrow side decks, and having no separate sleeping cabin in the bow - only a small compartment up fwd for a head if required - the saloon is much larger than on an average 26 footer so she will be very spacious and comfortable when we cruise the Norfolk Broads on a chilly winter's day (which is definitely the best time of year to be out on the Broads).

David

rebuild of 26ft Chris-Craft

thank you.
regards from London
David

thanks - if you are into "heavy metal" check out the post about the restoration of my 1961 62ft steel Feadship Tiky (ex Alto Volante)
best
D

sorry but you are mistaken - on the jackstaff (ie at the bow) there is only one flag, being a 1930s Chris-Craft house flag. on the ensign staff (at the stern) there is a US flag (which I know isn't correct as, being a British vessel,it should be a red ensign. )

the flag etiquette for British vessels is pretty much the same as for US vessels which you have kindly quoted as applies for sailboats. Chris, of course, is small a motorboat (for which, in the UK, different flag etiquette applies, especially as Chris doesn't have a mast with a spreader nor incidentally is she required to have one). She is indeed flying a red ensign in the picture taken 8 years ago, pre my ownership and pre-restoration - whereas in the pictures taken last week she is flying the Stars and Stripes, which although technically incorrect for a British vessel is nevertheless harmless, especially when she is moored in (my) private property with no public access, as in this case.

I hate to engage in semantics but that's not correct. Firstly, the UK national Flag is the Union Jack, which should NEVER be flown anywhere on a vessel of any kind . In fact , in the UK is an offence to do so. Instead, the Red Ensign should be flown at the stern, unless on a Naval vessel in which case the White ensign is flown , or if an owner has British Admiralty dispensation (as I do) a defaced blue ensign, or in the the case of a a member of the RYS , a white ensign may be flown. In addition , if special circumstances apply - ie a vessel is being used as a prop in a film , or being used for photographs, as in this case, non-correct flags may be flown temporarily.