by Andreas Jordahl Rhude
As of early March 2001, the fate of Chris Craft remains uncertain. The Bankruptcy Court of Illinois, in early February, approved the sale of the assets of Outboard Marine Corporation (OMC). OMC declared chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on 22 December 2000. Bombardier Motor Corporation of America and JTC Acquisitions, LLC purchased OMC in a joint venture for $95 million.
Bombardier has received the engine assets of OMC including the Johnson and Evinrude brands. The boat manufacturing areas of OMC have been obtained by JTC. JTC is the investment arm of Genmar Holdings, Inc., the Minneapolis based firm headed by Irwin Jacobs.
OMC boat brands include Chris Craft, Four Winns, Hydra Sports, Javelin, Lowe, Seaswirl, and Stratos. Manufacturing operations of all these firms have been reopened by Genmar with the exception of the Sarasota, Florida plant of Chris Craft. The Chris-Craft situation continues to be under review by Genmar.
Genmar brand name boats also include: Aquasport, Carver, Crestliner, Glastron, Hatteras, Larson, Logic, Lund, Nova, Ranger, Trojan, and Wellcraft. With the addition of the former OMC brands, Genmar is now the largest boat builder in the world.
The Chris-Craft brand name is probably the most recognizable to enthusiasts in the antique and classic boating world.
NEWS FLASH JTC Acquisitions, LLC (Genmar) has sold the Chris Craft assets. On 21 March, JTC announced that London based Stellican Ltd. purchased Chris Craft. British entrepreneur Stephen Julius heads Stellican. He successfully turned the fate of boat builder Riva around before selling the company last year. He hopes to do the same with the Sarasota based boat maker. New president of Chris Craft is Stephen Hesse. It may soon be that the boat builder will expand its line to include larger boats in the range of 35 to 60 feet. In the year 2000 the companys largest model was 32 feet. They sold 1,400 boats for an estimated value of about $50 million last year.
A Chapter of the Antique & Classic Boat Society
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