By RoadworkUK
A brief amble from where the Riva Ariston was posing there stood the display of another all time great boating name. It’s fair, if a little sad, to say that Chris-Craft isn’t perhaps as well known a marque in the UK as in the US, where the company was most famous for beautiful polished mahogany runabouts. Those boats went on to inspire such companies as, oh I don’t know, Riva, and so the whole boating world owes Chris Columbus Smith a debt of gratitude for the boats he Crafted.
So what delicious confections can the American legend offer at this years British boating picnic?
It was the shape that drew me in. That long, low, curved deck, pronounced shear and elegant tumblehome. Finished in a high-sheen metallic beige (I’m sure they wouldn’t want it to be referred to as beige, but there you go) it stood out from all the alabaster-white crowd like a Klingon at a Star Wars convention. The shape brought to mind all those fast boats which meant so much to me in the past, namely the Ray Hunt inspired deep-vee legends from Fairey and Trident.
Stepping aboard, via a teak bathing platform above the outdrive legs, requires some effort if one is to remain upright. A boat like this does without hand-holds or toerails and the smooth teak surface is made perilous by the shiny over-shoes all boat-show boarders are required to wear. Incidentally this is a 32′ boat and once on board I felt like I really needed to be sitting down to be secure. And that’s what this boat is all about; sitting, or reclining, really, in the sunshine. The cockpit seating even has chaise longues built in.
It looks well, but beyond the plentiful design flair we’re basically talking about a very well finished regular 32′ dayboat with overnight accomodation. There’s a fixed heads compartment below and and a pair of V-Berths who’s gap is filled by a swiveling table to form a double. There’s also a diminutive galley to port. The 22″ LCD TV set seems to serve more for reasons of “Yes, this boat has a TV” vanity than practical employment; the only way to properly view it without neck-craning is to sit on the companionway steps. Headroom is fine for oompa-loompas, To use the single electric hotplate I would have to be on my knees, though there is space to sit down on the john, which you don’t always find on boats like this.
As you might expect, my ungainly proportions found going below to be hard work; there’s a section of the foredeck moulding above the companionway hatch which folds out of the way, along with a section of windscreen which can be moved as well, but this is a slightly fussy operation. Personally, and I’m probably on my own here, I’d forget about the overnight accommodation altogether and have the space devoted as it would be on a big bowrider, which Chris Craft also offer on the 32 Launch.
To be brutally honest the helm position with its scatterment of dials and glued-on turned-aluminum-look backing seemed a little, well, forced. It didn’t come over as being terribly well thought out and the colour GPS plotter seemed a little lost in that great flat expanse of blank GRP. There’s no surface on which you could actually place a proper chart if you wanted to, either. Yeah, I know this is basically a big sportsboat and isn’t really intended for passagemaking, but the very presence of any overnight accommodation makes it seem that longer trips should at least be an option.
At least speed is definitely on the agenda; big Volvo Penta petrols or diesels are sitting there waiting to propel the Corsair 32 to over 40 knots. All this can be yours for from £200,000, which seems a lot of dough for thirty-two foot of extremely handsome boat which can only really be put to good use in very undemanding circumstances.
It really is wonderful to see Chris-Craft back in the UK and offering interesting new machines to tempt English sensibilities, and it’s a damn sight better than a lot of the travesties which dared wear the name over recent years, but it would have been wonderful to have seen them reference their golden age just a little more forcefully.
[ Images: Copyright 2014 Hooniverse/Chris Haining]
Kamil Kaluski 
Jeff Glucker