Chris Craft Ski

Boats Of Yesteryear

BEMUS POINT- There's plenty of reasons to love a new, fiberglass-bodied motor boat- they're sleek, quite powerful and often luxurious- but for many boat enthusiasts, there's nothing like a classic wooden sport boat.

"Just look at it," said Doug Cornelius, owner of a 1946 Chris-Craft U22 Sportsman, named Driftwood. "They're beautiful boats and they aren't made like this anymore, so there's a real nostalgia to owning one."

Dozens of boats similar to Cornelius's were docked at the Village Casino throughout the weekend, for the 14th annual Antique and Classic Boat Show, hosted by the Chautauqua Lake Twin Tiers chapter of the Antique and Classic Boat Society.

"I come up every year for this," Cornelius said. "It's a great event with a lot of great boats."

Jack McCredie, owner of a 1954 Chris-Craft Holiday named Til Bec II, said he also docks his boat at the Village Casino every year for the event.

"It's nice to come down and see what everyone else has on display," McCredie said. "A lot of people take these shows quite seriously."

Whether boat owners entered this weekend's show to win or not, however, both McCredie and Cornelius agreed that you won't find many classic boat owners who aren't serious about their mahogany-hulled beauties.

"This boat was originally my uncle's," McCredie said. "I grew up on it and learned how to ski on it and all that, and it's still a great boat. We keep it in the lake all summer long, but now it's more a boat that you take out and have dinner on, watch the sunset, that sort of thing."

Upon registering for the show, McCredie said you can opt to have your boat judged, or you can enter simply for display's sake. McCredie was there for the fun of it.

"A lot goes into the judging process," he said. "They check all the boat's electronics and the parts have to at least be from the same make and model, but you'll find a lot of these boats have all their original parts. I just like showing mine off."

For Cornelius, keeping the boat in good shape is a never ending process.

"There's always something that needs done with these," Cornelius said. "That's part of the joy of owning one.

Chris Craft Ski Towers For Boats Ski Boat Towers

The right Chris Craft wakeboard boat towers can transform your boat from an average boat into the ultimate water skiing machine. If you want to keep from making a big mistake, then you will need to get some of the facts straight aout the difference between great wakeboard boat towers and average wake board towers. Pay close attention and you can become an expert. Ski boat tower materials can vary greatly from one manufacturer to the next, but it is important to learn the difference. After using almost every tower out there, I believe that stainless steel is the best choice. While some people are drawn to a color, it must be remembered that those towers will be made of aluminum, but a stainless steel tower has the advantage of never rusting or chipping on the surface. The first lesson to learn, concerns the tower mounts. Every tower is attached to the boat via a mounting device called a tower mount. The thing to know here is that you need a very durable mount made of aircraft aluminum. In addition, you need to make sure that the mount and design of the tower allow it to be attached to either the flat deck surface, the side of the boat, or any other angle on the deck of your boat. Almost every tower feels rock solid when you first see it or use it, but here is the real whistle blowing insider secret facing manufacturers. Most towers are not designed for the real world abuse that occurs in the lake when you are traveling over rough water or on land when the boat is being trailered. This constant shaking takes most towers from solid to extremely lose inside of a year. A huge indicator is if the manufacturer warns you to not tube or use towables on their universal wakeboard tower. I was flabbergasted to find out that the most abusive activity you can do with a tower is to tow your family or buddies in a tube. But who wants to change the rope to down low when it could be up and out of the way of passengers. This also lifts the rope up and out of the water keeping tubers from getting sprayed in their faces from the rope dragging in the water.

Chris-Craft of the 1950s

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