Chris-Craft runabout
The varnished mahogany boat from Michigan that turned the motorboat into a series product.
Christopher Columbus Smith built boats on the St. Clair River in Michigan from the 1870s. In the 1920s the family firm, which became Chris-Craft, built motorboats on an assembly line with standardised parts, like the car factories in Detroit.
The boats made it possible for many more people to own a mahogany boat. The varnished runabout with several cockpits became an image of American summer life in the 1930s and a model for boatbuilders in Europe, among them Riva.
Materials: Mahogany on oak frames, chrome, inboard engine
Manufacture: Made in series by Chris-Craft in Algonac, Michigan, in many models from the 1920s.
The long, varnished mahogany foredeck.
Two or three open cockpits with padded backrests.
The windscreen, flagstaff and chromed fittings.