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Regarding "Subgroups" Future Enhancements to Boat

Every so often the executives of The Chris-Craft Antique Boat Club will pose a question asking for your thoughts. Or maybe you have something that you would like to share with us. Step up on the soap box here.

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Vic_Mel
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Regarding "Subgroups" Future Enhancements to Boat

Post by Vic_Mel » Fri Jun 09, 2006 11:12 am

I would be supportive of any effort to organize a sub-group of Lancer/XK owners. They are unique and well-designed boats. For example, I found a US Patent number on the port bow of my boat, so I got a copy of the patent from the Patent Office. Turns out Jim Wynn, of off-shore racing fame, patented the hull design. It appears Chris Craft produced it under license from him. I guess that explains why it rides so well!
Vic Melchiorre

1970 19' XK19 "Victory
1971 XK18 “Ave Maria”

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Bill Basler
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Post by Bill Basler » Fri Jun 09, 2006 1:21 pm

Bret and Vic_Mel, I would like to help out in your efforts to bring Lancer/Corsair division enthrusiast together. Please help me out in my efforts.

Keep in mind, as you two are interested in Lancers, there are others out there (ie: Bret) who are interested in Commanders...and some of those who are only interested in the fiberglass Commanders. One of my goals to marketing the Chris-Craft Antique Boat Club, is to bring as many of us together under one roof as possible. As many of you may know, there are a whole bunch of forums out there to take part in. We are one flavor of the many you can choose from. From a very idealistic standpoint, I would love to have all of us together. Perhaps we are getting there. Club membership is growing...and Boat Buzz particpants ae increasing by several a day.

As part of your club exec team, we all agree that we are/will embrace vintage fiberglass. When I say "are" embracing, that is a bit of an inaccurate statement as most who are here on Boat Buzz own wooden Chris-Crafts. The reasons are fairly obvious, in that the wood one's "got old" first.

Now we're at a time when the early glass Chris-Crafts are truly approaching antique status. When I say we "are" embracing...I am speaking from the goals of the executive team, but in truth, there's not much Boat Buzz discussion yet relative to vintage glass. This will happen in time as more of you engage in dicussions like this. It will also happen more as the phone rings and more of the callers express interest in vintage glass. When I say we "will" embrace, I am saying that we need to make vintage glass Chris-Craft enthusiasts aware that we are here for them...but we need to back it up with Brass Bell content, discussion...and members who share the same interests. Please spread the word.

For now, there is a membergroup feature at the top of each Boat Buzz page, USERGROUPS, that allows you to wave your "subgroup flag" Click on that link and tell us what you're interested in. You can be a part of as many Usergroups as you like. There is not a lot of functionality within these Usergroups yet, but at least it allows members to see who is interested in what. We will work on expanding this thought on future enhancements of Boat Buzz.

Please give me your thoughts.
Bill Basler

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Post by Wood Commander » Thu Jun 15, 2006 12:19 am

Bill, I went to Usergroups and it shows where I am already listed in the Commander enthusiast group. The other box that can be filled out is on the non- member line. Do I just enter in there even though I am already a member to get into a second group?

Also, there are a couple of problems here. One, I found the Corsair Division enthusiast group in the drop down menu. But many people that are interested in Lancers or XK's will not know that they came out of the Corsair Division. So they will not know to look there if they are interested in Lancers or XK's.

Secondly, the later versions of The Chris Craft Company fed off of the legend that the wood boats, built by the original company, had built up. It was a natural marketing- wise for them to use names out of the past for their newer fiberglass models. You'll find these newer second uses of the great old names for the newer boats in the Corsair, Catalina, Cavalier and Commander lines and maybe a few more that I have missed. Even the sail boat division had a Capitan, and that name was used for a 1950's cruiser.
As it stands now, there is no way to designate this in your Usergroups. People will not know or realize this when looking for a model of boat, such as my example above.

This is one of my pet peeves about the Chris Craft Commander Club. As I have discussed with Wilson, anybody that goes to their site will not realize that the Genesis of the Chris Craft Commander line of boats started with the mahogany cruisers in 1948! All that they see are the newer fiberglass boats that were made by a company that was a couple of times removed from the original business. It's not that they aren't great boats, they are! But they give no credence to their ancestry on that site. To me, a part of what our hobby and club is about is to supply information and education about our old charges. After all when it comes down to it, we are just custodians for moving and living museum pieces that are quite old. And there will never be anything quite like them again.

And as a note about the old fiberglass Chris Crafts, I showed my 1968 19' Lancer in an Antique and Classic Boat Society show. It was a good boat but it was in "user" condition. We knew we wouldn't be competition for anyone, it was just for fun. They did have a classic fiberglass class that we were in and a better boat won. But it was nice to get a participation trophy.

Also, out here (Seattle area) the Fiberglassics movement is pretty strong. The Fiberglassics members are mainly interested in smaller boats with outboard power. Several of our ACBS Pacific Northwest Chapter members have some really nice Fiberglassics to go along with their mahogany boats. And there is a big movement in the Fiberglassic group for the outrageous old fiberglass outboards and such with the huge fins and waaaayy out there styling. The beginning of the fiberglass boat industry coincided with both the jet/space age and the era of finned automobile styling. And in some cases the weirder the better! These folks are building a pretty big hobby out of the most outrageous models that they can find. It's a bit different than the world of classic Chris Crafts!


Bret
Bret

1953 35' Commander "Adonis III"

1970 23' lancer project

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Bill Basler
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Test Splitting Topics

Post by Bill Basler » Thu Jun 15, 2006 12:40 am

One of the Features I have on this forum is that I can "Split" topics when they start going down a different path than the original subject indicates. I tried this here. For the most part, I got most of this moved under a better heading. I may have lost some of Bret's early comments about starting a Lancer subgroup. That is what is being dicussed here.
Bill Basler

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Bill Basler
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Post by Bill Basler » Thu Jun 15, 2006 1:06 am

Bret, very good comments and right in line with where I think we should go as a club. In my opinion, for whatever its worth, our focus should be on illustrating the lineage on these old Chris-Crafts much like someone interested in geneology would trace their family tree and research every twist and turn that their family has taken.

Using your example, I believe the Corsair name has been used at least three times in Chris-Craft history, most recently for the series of modern day Chris-Craft boats ranging from 25 to 36 feet.

Again, in my opinion, the "material" used for Chris-Craft boat construction simply correlates with a specific period of time. I happen to love old wood Chris-Crafts. I appreciate them, I think they're beautiful, and frankly some of my interest has to do with saving something that is always trying to give itself back to nature (a nice way of saying rot away). It is unlikely that Chris-Craft will ever return to wooden boat construction. It is possible, but highly unlikely. So therefore, "wood" likey denotes a certain period of time in Chris-Craft history.

I can't help but wonder if fiberglass will also mark a specific period of time in history, only to be replaced with "material X." I can't fathom what material X will be, but looking out another 50 years, there will no doubt be a time that we all say, "remember those old fiberglass boats?"

Bret, this is what I am thinking about....50 years from now, "Remember those old fiberglass boats?" Only to dig back in the club archive to find out that there really were boats before fiberglass, "Remember those old wooden boats"

If we do our job properly, that lineage will stay in tact. You'll see it when you search Boat Buzz years from now. You'll see it when you search the online club archives when we get that in place.

We all need to remember that a Commander really was a wooden boat at one time. Documenting and sharing the lineage is what it's all about.

I hope I am on the right path in this thinking. Of course I welcome any thoughts form others. Don't get me wrong, I do not imagine this club becoming the Chris-Craft Vintage Glass Club. To the contrary, it all started with wood boats. Whatever we do, we will build on this foundation.

I am out of time for now. I will post a few notes about "Usergroups" to follow.
Bill Basler

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flicka
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Post by flicka » Thu Jun 15, 2006 8:45 pm

Hi Bill,

I think you are doing a great job trying to maintain, develope and encourage activity within this owner's group. This site is new and will take time to collect and add everything we would all like to see. It's crippling not to have direct access to the wealth of history and information on Chris Craft. I am still trying to figure out how to navigate the Mariner's Museum site. I would not rank it as 'user friendly' compared to the many other sites I have done research on.

Here's a link to the Classic Glastron Owner's Site, which I am also a member of. http://www.classicglastron.com/

Their site is huge and can quickly afford information in a matter of seconds to anyone wanting to learn and identify their old Glastron. It helps them greatly to have direct support from the factory whom contributes a good majority of what you see. The sites' moderators also beg for copies of any literature, brochures, spec sheets, pictures, etc. from the members of the group. We are all in it together, each one supports the other, right ? Lately I have been searching Ebay and various other sites trying to obtain anything I can on our 69 Constellation and would be glad to scan and share or even save to a disk so that you might create an archive here. I also plan on obtaining a Research Package from the Mariner's Museum on our boat.

Keep up the good work, Bill !!

flicka
1965 37' Constellation Express
1966 37' Owens Grenada

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