If you’re a fan of antique Chris-Crafts (and who isn’t?), you might want to take a good look at Allez, a 48-foot Chris-Craft Commuter built in 1930. It’s now fully restored and it’s for sale in Montreal.
Allez was hull number one of the Chris-Craft 48 lineup, built on the popularity of the Chris-Craft 38s. Only four other 48s were built, and only one other survives today.
Christopher Columbus Smith, the founder of Chris-Craft, spared no expense in building Allez, even as the Great Depression was taking hold. After it was built, his family used it for six months and then displayed it at the 1930 New York boat show and the Fort Lauderdale boat show. It also was used in the company’s brochure.
Mark Krzyzanowski, VP of Antique Boat America, says Allez “is truly a bookend to an era of wealth, extravagance and luxury.”
Smith sold the boat to a New York day trader, who sold it shortly thereafter to Amy Guest, whose family owned a lot of land in Florida. The boat was kept on Lake Champlain before being added to a private collection in Montreal in 1976.
It was built to provide high-speed transportation for its owner. It can hold up to 30 people, and hit a top speed of 30 knots, powered by twin 330-hp MerCruiser engines.
Allez has an open cockpit forward with a windscreen, forward and aft staterooms, an amidships settee and Pullman bunks, a galley, and a spacious upper deck. The varnished mahogany is gleaming, and the boat’s tumblehome aft is a visual reminder of things past. The beam is a slender 11’ 6”.
The boat now is said to be painstakingly restored. This is the first time it has been placed for sale since 1976, with a price of $649,000. Read more:
