n 82 32 43 w 42.6132735 n 82.5453808 w 42.6132735 ; 82.5453808 see also chris craft this article relies largely or entirely upon a single source . relevant discussion may be found on the talk page . please help improve this article by introducing citations to additional sources . october 2015 chris craft boats type private founded 1874 founder christopher columbus smith products boats owner stellican ltd. website www.chriscraft.com chris craft boats formerly chris smith and sons boat co. is a manufacturer of boats . it was sold in 1960 to nafi which would take the chris craft name . it is currently owned by the private equity firm stellican ltd. history edit chris smith built his first wooden boat in 1874 at the age of 13 . years later he built a duck hunting boat . his friends liked the way he built them and they asked him to build them one . this was technically the start of the chris craft boat co. he soon began to build more boats and joined his brother hank in 1881 to begin producing boats full time . in 1922 the brothers joined with other partners to form the smith and sons boat company . the company name was changed to chris craft in 1930 . a 1928 chris craft cadet the detroit area company became well known for their sleek racing boats in the 1910s and 1920s . chris craft sold high end powerboats to wealthy patrons such as henry ford and william randolph hearst . in the late 1920s chris craft extended its market into the middle class when it became one of the first mass producers of civilian pleasure boats . the company began assembly line production at their algonac michigan plant 1 dramatically lowering production costs . formerly most powerboats had been hand built . engines were supplied by both ford chrysler and by the hercules engine company in later models . 2 in 1927 the company introduced the cadet an affordable 22 runabout . at the time the domain of speedboats was largely confined to the wealthy . its innovative advertising campaign promised a piece of the good life to the growing american middle class . the company sold its boats on the installment plan making them among the first powerboats available to the general population . the great depression robbed many americans of discretionary income and chris craft sales suffered . the company introduced a line of low priced powerboats to stay solvent . by 1935 a 15.5 utility boat sold for as little as us 406 . during world war ii the company produced small patrol boats and launches for the u.s. navy . after the war chris craft introduced a new lineup of civilian pleasure boats in time for the massive american consumer expansion of the 1950s . that decade marked the height of company prestige and the brand name chris craft became virtually synonymous with pleasure boating . the company offered 159 different models and was the sales leader in many categories of small civilian powerboats . the company sold high end boats to famous customers such as dean martin katharine hepburn frank sinatra and elvis presley . their boats were often made from the finest mahogany and were considered to be among the best available . they were easy to operate a must for their weekend sailor owners . in some circles owning a chris craft was considered de rigueur . even their lower priced boats were considered to be of high quality often featuring such luxury items as a liberal use of mahogany teak and brass . in 1957 chris craft corporation added a metal boat division designated the roamer steel boats division rsbd founded upon its purchase of the roamer boat company now known as chris craft roamers . the company continued to be independent until it was acquired by shields & company s nafi corporation in 1960 and merged with nafi . they renamed the company chris craft industries incorporated in 1962 . 3 references edit location of chris craft michigan factory history of hercules engine company chris craft industries inc. company history . funding universe.com . retrieved 21 march 2011 . retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title chris craft boats & oldid 731806342 categories american boat buildersdefunct companies based in michiganhidden categories coordinates not on wikidataarticles needing additional references from october 2015all articles needing additional references navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages deutsch edit links this page was last modified on 27 july 2016 at 17 02 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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