Fountain Cove Faucets

by Jody Schroath Argo

I walked past the marina slips covered with some on the neck of northern Virginia, and that's what I saw, not skip anything. Minnow, a cruiser lapstrake Chris-Craft, an old wooden Citation; Ole Chris, an old Chris about 30 feet, IV therapy, an old cruiser Chris, a wood Carver, a Trooper Chris-Craft, a something big wood, an old Egg Harbor, and a foot Constellation 57-1965 named Chris mood. This is unofficial clubhouse of the marina, and, with its awning, wicker chairs and sofas soft fly her deck feels like the porch of an old plantation columns. On the road, there was still a 58-foot Elco once was named Do-Ho and belonged to Howard Johnson, an empty space normally occupied by a constellation of 55 feet that Chris is currently out for repairs (always a dangerous connotations when used in reference to an old wooden boat) and a 46-foot 1949 Chris Craft Double Cabin Flying Bridge listing slightly to the left. This is mine. With a little work, it could be a real beauty, I told myself again. This has been my mantra for the past five years. And indeed, the long curve of his cabin outbreak is pure Art Deco, through the Jetsons. Inside, it has a lounge and large mahogany cabin, fully equipped kitchen and a bathroom linoleum turquoise owl, not that it actually works, of course. The bilge pump clicked on the water and began pouring out from the right through the hull. I smiled sadly, remembering that my husband calls her our Rick fountain decorative $ 2,000 per year.

I looked back to the dock. Nobody. All these beautiful old boats and one to talk. I returned to my own boat, leaning gently and collecting dust, and I was surprised by a wave of helplessness. Frustration. Solitude. I needed to talk. I needed to talk Chris-Craft. I need to find owners who sent down to their old cruisers Chris, who leave the ramp and the bay. I needed to sit in their living rooms and feel like a glamorous owner Chris-Craft of Hepburn past, or Eleanor Roosevelt, Katherine, for example. I need to see the brightwork to the end of the tunnel.


During the spring and summer that followed, I continued my determination. I attended all the shows and classic ancient boat and make sure I could find on the bay. I chatted up the owners. I oohed and aahed more restorations that left me with envy and counsel fairly bursting my rivet resolution. And I crept into the old shipyards where cruisers were likely to be under the saw and brush off fine china. Finally, I contacted the owners of Mecca for old Chris, the Marine Museum in Newport News, Va., which houses the collection of 200,000 pieces Chris-Craft, and talked with Jerry Conrad, who curates collection and is himself the author of Chris-Craft, The Essential Guide.

What have I learned? For one thing, the word "people" in the phrase "persons who possess old Chris-Craft cruisers" almost always refers to couples-M. And Mrs. owner. Guys can have love and former star Chris-Craft and Services public, but couples and self-esteem cruisers. Women are as enamored of them than men are, and they are in the process from the beginning to help choose the style of Cruise, renovation and decoration. Yes, the decoration one of the most compelling benefits of an old cruiser over a modern ship. You can do inside your own in the same way you would in a historic house. And you can do just as warm and welcoming. Besides this, there is room for children and friends and friends of children.

Why Chris-Craft rather than Elco Trumpy, wearing Troy, eggs or one of dozens of other boat manufacturers just happened? Chris-Craft was the largest manufacturer of pleasure boats in the world during the 1950s and 1960s, so there are many of them still there. And Chris-Craft has made a lot of differences.