HistoryNew School represents the pinnacle of wooden boat building from the world’s most famous boatbuilder, Chris Craft
The Brand
Chris Craft established its roots in the late 1880’s, building sleek, fast, and sexy boats meant for lake watersports and racing. But the company’s combination of progressive industrial design and reputation for craftsmanship and innovation soon propelled it to create larger and more luxurious boats as a direct response to their tremendous popularity.
With the backdrop of the post-war economic boom and concurrent peak in American optimism, Chris Craft became the brand of choice for celebrities and casual yachtsmen alike (Elvis, Frank Sinatra, Katharine Hepburn, Dean Martin and countless others were proud Chris Craft owners), as their combination of gorgeous designs, brilliant marketing, and broad product range brought the experience of boating to the American public in a way that was unprecedented.
By the late 1950s, it was said that 2 of every 3 pleasure boats in the United States were built by Chris Craft. It was this peak that inspired Chris Craft to launch their largest and most expensive yachts: the Constellations. A sleek, elegant design unlike anything on the market, and a direct result of Chris Craft’s practice of hiring the best industrial designers from the American automotive industry.
By 1966, the Constellation had proven to be an extremely popular cruising design that came to be the ultimate emblem of success in mid-century America.
It was at this time that Summer Song (now New School) was completed in Chris Craft’s Pompano Beach, Florida, factory and first slipped into the warm waters of the southern Atlantic. She was optioned with a thick blue stripe across her hull, an extended hardtop with wing doors, and a unique interior layout, at a total cost of $118,230 (~$1.2M in today’s dollars).
She spent her first decade based out of Miami, motoring up and down the Florida coast, with seasonal trips to and from the many islands of the Bahamas until she was sold in a probate sale to her next owner, who brought her through the Panama Canal and up the west coast to Los Angeles.
In Long Beach, CA, she was lovingly maintained in bristol condition for more than 40 years by a preeminent local family, where she was berthed in the front slip of the Long Beach Yacht Club. She played host to hundreds of guests on regular trips up and down the Southern California coastline as well as Catalina Island. Her owner was the Commodore of the Long Beach Yacht Club, and Summer Song would regularly serve as the Judge’s Boat for their regular regattas and special events.
The Next Chapter
In 2014, Summer Song was purchased by her current owner.
With tremendous help from great friends, her old insignia was removed and she was re-christened New School to mark the start of her next great chapter.
Restoration
After 6 months of initial restoration and repair work, she journeyed 1200 miles down the Pacific Coast to relocate to the ideal cruising waters of the Sea of Cortez, settling in to the idyllic Baja town of La Paz where she would begin a restoration that was expected to take 2 years, but would actually grow to a 7 year project
In La Paz, a small team of legendary shipwrights and craftsmen was assembled:
A woodshop was established in a warehouse, a container of mahogany was imported from Zambia, and thousands of components, raw materials, tools were shipped (smuggled?) by plane, by car, and, eventually, by duffel bag.