No love for certain Chris Crafts?

My girlfriend and I have been trawling ebay and searchtempest.com (craigslist search) for a while...I'm not ready to buy but I'd love to have a 25 or 28' Chris Craft Catalina, the late '70s -80s style. Seems like it'd be the perfect boat for me/us.

At any rate I've noticed lots of Commanders, Catalina's, and even old wooden Constellations in pretty nice shape, often renovated. However there's few Chris Crafts from the late 80s on up. Once in a while you'll see an Amerosport or a Scorpion but they're often neglected (rotten decks and stringers), need engines, don't have engines, seen sitting outside uncovered, etc.

Did these later Chris Crafts suck? I believe that OMC bought them at some point and I'm guessing that might be when they went downhill. Is this it?

I've also noticed theres very few late model Chris Crafts...are they just not common these days?

Re: No love for certain Chris Crafts?

The Catalinas are my favorites as well. If you can find one from the time period you indicate, and its been maintained well, go for it. I don't remember the exact dates they changed hands, but I would stay away from late 1980's and up.

They are currently under new management and don't make any cruisers. THey are strictly high end sport boats.

Re: No love for certain Chris Crafts?

Chris Craft, along with many other makes, suffered from cost-cutting in the '80's. Things generally improved greatly in the '90's. I have a 1999 24' Express up for sale right now (I bought a bigger boat), and the materials and build quality are top notch. That boat was built during OMC's ownership of the brand.

My .02

Re: No love for certain Chris Crafts?

I agree that the 70s and 80s models were nicely designed hulls, a 25' Catalina would be an ideal cruising rig for the Great Lakes.

A flying bridge/dual helm would be cool but probably would be a 28' or bigger.

This one is pretty sweet. Good luck to ya, I see lots of them around so I'm sure you will find a good one.

Re: No love for certain Chris Crafts?

F14CRAZY said:

Did these later Chris Crafts suck? I believe that OMC bought them at some point and I'm guessing that might be when they went downhill. Is this it?

I've also noticed theres very few late model Chris Crafts...are they just not common these days?

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I think the decline started in 81 when Murray (G. Dale) bought the business. If you ever see a reference to a Murray Chris-Craft it would be an inidcation of a boat built between 81 and 88.

http://www.chris-craft.org/wiki/ind...81_to_1988,_Murray_Chris-Craft#New_Challenges

OMC bought the company in 89...contrary to what you mentioned this was probably when Chris-Craft started a pretty significant upswing.

OMC went out of business in 2000.

Chris-Craft was purchased by an equity firm that still holds the comany.

At this point the company if focused on making "high" end boats that have a certain nostalgia about them. In my opinion they are some of the best looking boats currently available.

Re: No love for certain Chris Crafts?

28' Catalina's can be found with flybridges...

I still wonder why there's so many Amerosports and the like in bad shape though they seem to like all been built with OMC King Cobra drives which doesn't seem to help their longevity...

The Catalina's I like are inboards at any rate...I prefer boats with lots of cabin versus deck space and they're great as far as that goes

Thanks for the replies so far

Re: No love for certain Chris Crafts?

Bump? Just wondering if anyone has more insight on this

Re: No love for certain Chris Crafts?

It seem like the timline for the decline of CC was 89 through mid/late 90's. There are almost none of those boats around, likely due to build quality.

Take a look at my restoration of my current 85 CC Scorpion 186SL

Soon to be repowered this season with a mild 383 Stroker.

https://picasaweb.google.com/103944205977677940337/ChrisCraft?authkey=Gv1sRgCN6KiMDb5-ypHQ#

Re: No love for certain Chris Crafts?

http://grandrapids.craigslist.org/boa/2292892368.html

I happened to see this Amerosport today. Looks like it's in decent shape, and reasonably priced.

Not quite as big as you said you wanted, but seems like a good deal. 5.7 Merc/Alpha 1 drive.

Are you still looking for a bigger boat?

Re: No love for certain Chris Crafts?

RotaryRacer said:

At this point the company if focused on making "high" end boats that have a certain nostalgia about them. In my opinion they are some of the best looking boats currently available.

Click to expand...

My brother has a 2006 22' Heartage Launch and it's a OK boat. It has tons of teak that is some work. The 6.2L BravoIII is under powered on Tahoe and very few came with a bigger engine.