| Chris Craft Styling & Design (contd) |
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| There's Dick now (middle), sketching out another classic Chris-Craft - who's buying him lunch today? |
| 1960s - "Times a'Changing" |
| The design revolution at Chris-Craft started in 1961, when an up & coming Ford Motor Company stylist, Richard Avery, responded to a job ad posted in the Detroit Times. Leaving the hallowed halls of the Lincoln Division (where he worked for the famed John Najjar) Dick tells us that he was excited to pursue his first love - boating - and that the freezing Michigan winters quickly brought his wife onboard. "Let's go!" she said, so off they headed off to Chris Craft's new corporate headquarters in sunny Pompano, FL. Working for Chuck Burgess, Dick first applied his talents to mahogany runabouts and Lancers. Cutting down the sides yielded the Super Sports - a sharp looking ski boat. It was just the start of a twenty year reign, and many fabulous Chris-Crafts that still endure today - crafted out of the finest materials and preserved by their admiring owners. |
| At the same time, Avery was helping Fred Hudson design Chris-Craft's fabulous new 38 foot Commander - their first successful foray into fiberglass. Nothing like it had ever been seen before, and the crowds waited with anticipation at the 1964 New York Boat Show. No less a styling icon than Raymond Loewy (designer of the Avanti) was there too, pronoucing it "quite a boat" - thanks Ray! |
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| 1964 Super Sport - who sees the beginnings of the new Roamer transom design? |
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| - Before - |
| CONSTELLATIONS... |
| COMMANDERS... |
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| - After - |
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| Still, Avery had more ambitious plans. He wanted to push his new "aggressive aerodynamic" styling paradigm - first seen in Avery's '63 Constellations -- further. We would have to wait until 1965 and the total re-design of the mid-size Roamers however, to see what this meant for the future of Chris-Crafts. |