AMERICAN IDOL

Chris-Craft's legendary 1959 Silver Arrow may have been intended as a stop gap model but its iconic styling has stood the test of time

- Gerald Guétat

Chris-Craft may be best known today for its elegant retro-styled sportsboats but back in the 1950s it was at the cutting edge of boat design and building techniques.

In the aftermath of the Second World War the European boatbuilding industry was still in recovery mode but over in the US the economic euphoria of the postwar period was in full swing and Chris-Craft was in the thick of it.

With its headquarters just 50 miles from Detroit, the beating heart of the American automotive industry, it was inevitably starting to pick up on some of the more exuberant styling influences. Big fins, big engines and lashings of chrome were the fashion of the moment and Chris-Craft wanted in.

AGE OF OPTIMISM

It wasn't just boat design that was in the throes of revolution, the boatbuilding process was in a state of flux too. Fibreglass was the future of mass market boat building but the yard’s production lines were still entirely based on wood.

It was into this maelstrom that Chris-Craft launched the Silver Arrow in 1958. With its classic mahogany hull sheathed with a fibreglass skin, it was a curious hybrid of old and new designed to demonstrate that the yard was preparing for a bold new future even if it hadn't quite got there yet.