craig craft

[craigcraftdave]

What is the history of Craig craft? who built these boats? where there many made? where were the boats made? I am really interested in the history of my boat and would love to know more about them. so any history or info would be great!

[Composite Specialties]

Designed by Craig Selvidge and built by Craig and his brother Greg out of the Seattle, Washington area. I purchased a set of his plans back in the 70's and we built the boat in our basement. Craig's plans were the best and was the sole model that I used when I started making and selling plans.

Some of the teams using CraigCrafts back then was Craig and Greg, Jan Christ, The Shuman brothers and I remember one D-Stock hydro that they built for the Hinton, Wva Stock Nationals. My brother Chris Johnson also had Jan Christ's record setting A-Stock hydro that we had shipped from Washington state to North Carolina.

Then came the copies of the CraigCraft..... and there were many.

JW Myers knows Craig well.... get in touch with JW to find out more history.

[craigcraftdave]

How car I tell if the boat was built by craig or from plans of his my boat is signed craig craft and then it says who it was made for...

[carl lewis]

How car I tell if the boat was built by craig or from plans of his my boat is signed craig craft and then it says who it was made for...

what does the dashboard look like???? post a pic and Ill try to help you out.

Carl

[MarkD]

Not that its a big deal, but just to correct a few things MJR said above:


Designed by Craig Selvidge and built by Craig and his brother Greg out of the Seattle, Washington area.

Greg was there at the shop and he took care of us for sure, but it was mostly Craig and I that were building the boats in the early days - Joe Price helped some as well the first year or so and lived at the shop for a while.


Some of the teams using CraigCrafts back then was Craig and Greg, Jan Christ, The Shuman brothers and I remember one D-Stock hydro that they built for the Hinton, WVa Stock Nationals. My brother Chris Johnson also had Jan Christ's record setting A-Stock hydro that we had shipped from Washington state to North Carolina.

All of those folks did run Craig Crafts - we (Craig, me and Joe Price) built and did most all of the work on the Shuman's J's. Jan Christ mostly ran B Stock Hydro - sometimes 25SSH - but actually, I do not think Jan ever set a record in an ASH - I was the main ASH driver and most all of the ASH boats in those days were mine. I set the ASH Kilo in '71 or '72, and the 1 1/4 mile comp record in '77. We built and sold a few other hydros - Doug Boyer in Mich got a BSH - in the ASH class, Steve DeFeo from NJ won the nationals in my '72 ASH in '73 and again in '74 in a new boat Craig made for him (my old boat was 2nd that year). From about '74-'78, I made a number of ASH and 15SSH boats - but called them MD Boats from '74 on. Shipped them to Mass, Calif, and a few others. Craig made a few hydros after that as well but mostly made runabouts. We were both fortunate to win the nationals in '77 - I won ASH, Craig won ASR and BSR that year - and most of the crew pretty much quit racing full time by the end of '78-79. Craig made a few boats after that and sold a lot of plans. I still stay in touch with Craig and Greg as well as many other wonderful friends from those days.

Mark Demaray

[Composite Specialties]

Hey Mark, thanks for the updates and corrections. The boat we had shipped to us was Jan's boat, he told us he set a ASH record with it... who knows.

Who was the DSH boat for that year at Hinton, WVa nationals?

[J-Dub]

I just left the Craig Craft Word Headquarters in Devil's Lake Oregon Yesterday morning.
Things to come.....

J-Dub

[MarkD]

JW -I talked to Craig last week and heard about some cool new things to come. Sounds like fun. He and Greg have made some very cool hot rods in recent years. He is always doing something fun. Nice Avtar shot by the way.......that one must have hurt.

MJR - I will ask Craig about the DSH as I have a vague recollection of it - but he would have made that one himself as I was working full time for OMC then. I drove the rig with most of the boats, Craig's brother Mike, and the Shuman kids to Hinton in '76 and I did not take a DSH. We went home by way of Winnona, MN to the Pro Nationals, stopped for a few days and ran the 125cc Hydro there.

Mark

[Composite Specialties]

I still have my original Craig-Craft plans for the ASH I built and I still have the original Craig-Craft decal somewhere in the shop.

[David Mason]

My Dad won a lot of Nationals and high points in a Craig Craft racing in 25MH. I think it was an original and not a copy, but I am not 100% certain. He barrell rolled in in Rising Sun Indiana many many years ago and the boat was destroyed by another driver going through it. That was one winning boat for sure. I bet he would still be winning in it had it survived. Dad gave the class up after that.

[MarkD]

David

Do you have any photos of your dad's boat ?

Mark

[DeanFHobart]

Hey Mark, thanks for the updates and corrections. The boat we had shipped to us was Jan's boat, he told us he set a ASH record with it... who knows.

Jan Chirst didn't ever set an ASH record. Probably BSH and 25SSH though.

Just a correction.

:cool::cool::D:D

[Composite Specialties]

You are probably correct, I remember him saying her ran the boat in BSH as well or 25ss

[champhotrod]

Not that its a big deal, but just to correct a few things MJR said above:



Greg was there at the shop, but it was mostly Craig and I that were building the boats in the early days - Joe Price helped some as well the first year or so and lived at the shop for a while.



All of those folks did run Craig Crafts - we (Craig, me and Joe Price) built and did most all of the work on the Shuman's J's. Jan Christ mostly ran B Stock Hydro - sometimes 25SSH - but actually, I do not think Jan ever set a record in an ASH - I was the main ASH driver and most all of the ASH boats in those days were mine. I set the ASH Kilo in '71 or '72, and the 1 1/4 mile comp record in '77. We built and sold a few other hydros - Doug Boyer in Mich got a BSH - in the ASH class, Steve DeFeo from NJ won the nationals in my '72 ASH in '73 and again in '74 in a new boat Craig made for him (my old boat was 2nd that year). From about '74-'78, I made a number of ASH and 15SSH boats - but called them MD Boats from '74 on. Shipped them to Mass, Calif, and a few others. Craig made a few hydros after that as well but mostly made runabouts. We were both fortunate to win the nationals in '77 - I won ASH, Craig won ASR and BSR that year - and most of the crew pretty much quit racing full time by the end of '78-79. Craig made a few boats after that and sold a lot of plans. I still stay in touch with Craig and Greg as well as many other wonderful friends from those days.

Mark Demaray

I bought Mark's big A hydro in 1973 at the Utah nationals.
My ex-wife Christy bought this boat from me and I later rebuilt it and it made a very good 15SSH boat. (I ran this boat at the 77 nationals and placed in ASH that year, thought I had the fastest 15 but jumped gun) She liked the Craig Crafts so well we bought two more used ones, one of Jan's BSH which we ran at 60 MPH thru the kilos with an "A". Then we got the newer DeFeo
boat. The original Mark boat also held the 15SSH Kilo record for a while.

Cooper 1US Jess

[jon66w]

In regard to Craigs DSH boats, my racing partner, Adios Racing Team, Erv Julien, 69 W, replaced his 1st boat , a Janz Hydro he bought from Wil Pergande after the 1970 Beloit Nationals, with a CraigCraft some time in the middle 70's. It had the inovative cockpit and clear, "Creased" cowling and it was very fast. About that time Craig and Lee Suter spend that summer kicking around the Wisconsin area building a few boats and Lee racing his wild BSR which he had to use all of his tall body and considerable skills to keep it under control. I had some boat building experience and spent some time talking to Craig about boat construction and design. He was way ahead of his day with his background in aviation design and was a very kind and sharing individual. Also, John Puestow still has his CraigCraft C/DSR with the full cowling with which he set staight away records. Jon Walters, 66 W

[MarkD]

Hey Coop

Nice to hear from you. That was a great boat - the last 3 or 4 I made for my self came out nicely - you bought one, Mike Mazer from Mass bought one, Carl Holt bought one too. I still have my last one from the 1977 Nationals - I bought t back from the Dawes' who had it out in the desert of Calif for a few years. I need to restore it one of these days and see if it still works oaky.

I saw you won BSR this year - congrats my friend. You have stayed with it all these years and still look great. We had some fun in those years for sure. I recall that we had so many more boats at the Nationals in the 70's - at Dayton in '75 I think there were 124 ASH entries, you had to get a fast 1st just to get in the finals. The good old days.

Mark

[Sutter's Gold Jr.]

Craig lived with us for a summer in Brookfield, WI and built a boat in the garage when Lee and he had spare time. I will see if I can locate some pictures. He also baby sat my brother and I...let's just say he wasn't very strict. As J-Dub pointed out earlier in the string...more to come from Craig Craft.

Btw...J-Dub...Lee called me after Seafair and told me he was really impressed with you and enjoyed the tour.

[Bucket]

Craig lived with us for a summer in Brookfield, WI and built a boat in the garage when Lee and he had spare time. I will see if I can locate some pictures. He also baby sat my brother and I...let's just say he wasn't very strict. As J-Dub pointed out earlier in the string...more to come from Craig Craft.



AH yes, I remember that summer. My family was leaving WI and Lee was taking my dad's place. I was able to spend some time with Lee and Craig testing the boat they built. Funny part is we moved to Seattle, I had looked Craig up a few times then lost track of him.

[MarkD]

Bucket

I also remember that boat as it had a very short cockpit area - a design feature Craig changed after that. I found a few more old photos of the early days and early boats - I will post them later tonight or tomorrow. I saw Greg & Craig Selvidge, Earl Garrison (now 88 and looking great) and Wayne Seeberg last week - lots of great old stories. We had lunch at the restaurant that was built on the site of the Craig Craft shop that burned down in 1977 or 78.

Mark

[Ron Hill]

I have really enjoyed your posts.... Some questions enter my mind, and some have been there for years.


When you guys, Craig, Greg, Dean, Earl, the teacher that lives on an island....He lived in California for a few years...Jan Christ... Who did your motor work? Or did you guys just do your own?

I know when Sutter lived in California, he bought a lot of new parts for his 20-H's from my dad....but it appeared to me that Lee did all his own (quite GOOD) motors.

Earl Garrison seems to be a very straight shooter, retired principal and all, but one year at the Winter Nationals he was DQ'd for having his head gasket on upside down????? I never really figured that out. Do you know anything about that? It sounds like something I might do, but not to go faster, seems it might leak anyway, jusy a screw up in assembly.

But has anyone heard of putting an OMC A head gasket on upside down?

Where most of your props Smith's....or did Joe Price do them? What about George Lockhart props...He made some good ones....I know Craig had some good Records by Joe Price...Craig showed me some stuff about "A" props.

Which KG-4 block did you like the best?

Which case?

Bring on the pictures!

[MarkD]

Ron

Most motor work was done on our own. Everyone had good mentors and it all came together in the mid 70's. Craig's best A motor - the Mark 15 we called "Goldie" - was built by Craig in the very early days with help from Lloyd Swanson. Lloyd did all the work for his son Dave Swanson who ran a Karelson A runabout in the 60's with great success. Craig passed on his knowledge to me. I also grew up with a neighborhood friend named Jon Rankin - and his dad made the coolest mini-bike anyone had ever seen. I recall his dad had a very nice machine shop. My brother and I grew up spending summers at our lake cabin and built a Glen-L plan hydro - and then bought an old 2 cockpit Sid Craft boat from Howard Anderson and a KG-4 from Mike Jones. When we wanted hardware for the Glen-L, we bought it from a guy that lived just up the hill - Leonard Keller - and my brother and I ended up working for him for years. We learned a lot from Leonard, and then as we got into racing, we discovered that my neighborhood friend Jon with the cool mini-bike - his dad's name was Bill Rankin. Most of you have heard of him from time to time. One of the best machine and motor guys ever. Hal Tolford also helped us learn about motors in those early days. As everyone does, we gleaned knowledge along the way from many others - Gerry Walin, Jim Hallum, Ron and Dewey Anderson, Ray and Dennis Lee, Bob Martin and many others who were kind enough to care about some kids from the north end of town to help them out and share once in a while.

Jan Christ and Earl Garrison (Earl is Jan's step-dad) mostly ran BSH and BSR -and they did their own work as best as I can recall. Earl was saying last week they had a mechanic who was not a racer help with motor work as well. I do not think that Earl would have ever even thought of doing any illegal stuff - I recall not even one incident or rumor about that in my day - and of course, the KG-4, Mark 15 and Mark 20 A and B Merc had no head gasket.........

I am not sure about Lee Sutter as he mostly ran alky stuff - A and B racing runabout - in my day and Ron Anderson did most of his motor work when I was around.

Props - we had them all - R. Allen Smith props were used when I set the ASH Kilo Record - it was Gerry Walin's prop and the same one he used with the Anzanis. I set a competition record with an R.Allen Smith prop as well, won the nationals with a Czpluski (from the Chicago area). One of my Joe Price props - a Kamic blank I got from Bill Rankin - won the ASH nationals in 1972. After I dumped in the elims with the fastest time of the week - I loaned it to Dave Hoggard and he won the finals going away. Most of my competition props I had were built and/or worked on by Joe Price and I did some work on them as well. Craig's props were also made and worked on by Joe Price and George Lockhart. I think his best one that he won the ASR nationals with was a Lockhart that George made for him from a Record blank in about 1969. In B, he had some made by Price, Hopkins, Smith and others. We tested a lot and used many sizes and shapes.

For boats, here is a short chronology:

In 1969, Craig borrowed a Price Craft runabout from Tom Schiedt and was the fastest ASR at the Nationals at Hinton, WV. He jumped the gun one heat and did not win that year. He came home and started building and designing boats. Craig is and was always very good with wood and design - he has a great feel for it (although unlike what some posted earlier, he had no aircraft design background - we were 17 and 19-20 year old kids then for God's sake). Jim Jatho helped with hydros early on, and they were of this style - kind of like a pointed nose Hedlund

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e4/markdemaray/102_2562.jpg

Of course Joe Price was around (and he lived at the shop from maybe 1974 until it burned down) and he always helped with ideas and concepts, but Craig started building the runabouts pretty much on his own by 1972. One of his first, if not his first, runabouts was this one from that year.

Craig's ASR - testing with me:
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e4/markdemaray/1971CraigCraftASR.jpg
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e4/markdemaray/CraigCraft1971.jpg

and this ASR he made for Greg (with my brother holding him):
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e4/markdemaray/1972GregSelvidgeASR.jpg

That same year, Craig made this hydro as a Kilo boat - new cowl design and many new features he thought up - these photos are from Modesto Kilos in 1972 - set the record at 61.291 mph (but disqualified later for BS reasons) but could read 62-63 mph pretty easily on the Keller speedo that Leonard had just calibrated for us. We let Gerry Walin take it for a test ride - it was his prop after all - and he came in saying "Geez-zus you guys - I had a tough time going that fast with my A Anzani not that many years ago". It was a fun but disappointing week. Learned a lot from that week about inspections, racing politics, and that its just not that easy to set records at the same speeds you can read on the speedo. Here is the "Barking Spyder" kilo boat - it later set the M Hydro record as well with Ralph Hildebrand driving:

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e4/markdemaray/1972ModestoASHKiloboat.jpg
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e4/markdemaray/GregSelvidge-ModestoASHkilos.jpg

More in the next thread

Mark

[MarkD]

Then we built this competition ASH for me using many similar design ideas from the Kilo boat and the first ones pictured above in this thread - ran it in ASH and a few BSH races - it was very fast and the coolest boat on the beach (to me anyway) - I sold this one to Steve DeFeo from New Jersey and he won the Nationals in ASH in 1973 at Utah in it - and his freind (Al Desiato ?) got third in ASH with it at Dayton in '74 (Steve won ASH again in '74 with a new hydro Craig built for him). One of Craig's B runabouts and Jan Christ in the background:

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e4/markdemaray/1972ASHQuicyWA.jpg
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e4/markdemaray/BSHGreenlakeMark.jpg

Later in 1972, Craig built his "Floater Boat" that set the ASR and BSR Kilo records with relatively huge increases in speed over the former records. Here is the first "Floater" after setting the ASR 1 2/3 mile competition record at Lawrence Lake:

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e4/markdemaray/1972LawrenceLkASRFloater-Craig.jpg
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e4/markdemaray/ASRFLoaterboatASR1972.jpg

After this, probably 1973 and on, Craig built competition runabouts with more features of the Floater (such as the duck-bill front end). I kept changing hydro design each year incorporating design elements from many sources - and finally ended up with this design in 1977 which I thought was the best of all I had built.

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e4/markdemaray/MDBoats1977ASH.jpg

My brother in law Ron Anderson had some great ideas that he used in his A&H boats that he made with Bobby Herring. I used some of his ideas in this one combined with what I learned in prior years, but of course, the concepts and speeds slightly changed with a KG-4 for power instead of a Konig A or B.

More in the next thread.

Mark

[MarkD]

Here is Steve DeFeo in the ASH Craig built for him in 1974 - he won the ASH nationals in it at Dayton (photo from Rusty Rae's very cool book called Speed and Spray which documented that whole 1974 Dayton Stock National Championship race).

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e4/markdemaray/102_2593.jpg

I remember going to a BBQ at Mike Jones' house in 1972-73 when Jerry Waldman was in town. Jerry was trying to do with boat racing what has been done with NASCAR - improve images and take the sport to new levels and asked to meet with some of the fast and up and coming racers - guess we fit in with that, although we were not yet in our 20's, had no money, and built everything on a shoe string. I vividly recall him saying we should all be wearing what we would now call Dockers and present ourselves in a neat and conservative manner to project an image that would be good for the sport. I did not know what was wrong with the way I looked - gosh Jerry, I worked hard to patch those pants and they were after all, my good luck pants. And it was the early 70's, not long after Woodstock and all. Check out that hair - geez. Craig and I drove to the Nationals in 1971 in a VW bug with his ASR on top - Seattle to Lake Placid Florida - and let me tell you, I was not able to get out of a mini-mart in Florida fast enough when a crowd of rednecks started hassling me......

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e4/markdemaray/Mark1972drivingsuit.jpg

Jerry Waldman was a great guy and had he lived, the sport would certainly have looked different today I think.

On the A stock Merc motors, I think it was pretty well established the the 505XXX and 506XXX series blocks were the best. There may have been some, but I do not recall a record being set or a Nationals winning motor that did not have serial numbers in those ranges. We had so many parts combinations that we thought were the best - we constantly stopped at old marinas on every single trip we took and bought old junk KG-4's, KG-7's, Mark 15's, Mark 20's to get parts. That could be a whole other thread.......

Enough of my old days ramblings for now. Probably should have moved this thread to the Outboard history section. Its been a great week of old boat racing stories for me - lunch with the old crowd, and Jimmy Hallum gave me copies of his old boat racing movies from 1959 - 1976 - awesome images of the ASH Barking Spider in the kilos, Craig's ASR kilo run, Gerry Walin's 100mph B Anzani, and sound movies of me running the 125cc hydro. Very cool memories of a great time and many, many wonderful people we made friends with along the way. Many thanks to Ron Hill for this forum - its great to hear from many folks from the good old days.

Mark D

[Sutter's Gold Jr.]

Cool pictures Mark!

This is from Lee below...

This is the Craig-Craft floater boat that Craig set the AU record @61MPH and I set the BU record @ 73MPH. This picture is at Lawrence Lake on the 1 2/3 mile course.

I wish we would have tried the “A” Konig on it to see if the design would have handle the speed. If so, I think 90 MPH with Ron’s nitro engine would have been possible. The boat would lift in the rear as it went faster!!!

[MarkD]

That is a better picture of it - same boat as the 1-R boat pictured above. I have more shots of it somewhere. Craig was not kind to it with paint schemes after 1973, but crappy spray can paint job notwithstanding, it was still a phenom. That original one burned up with the Craig Craft shop building fire. Craig made another very similar boat that he still has. I am pretty sure I would not have wanted to be the one driving it at 90 mph with Ron's A though - Lee would have had to have been the guy for that one..........


Mark

[MarkD]

A few more shots of Craig in the floater - which he tried to run at the 1974 Stock Nationals at Dayton, Ohio. He somehow barrel rolled it - not the best rough water competiton boat perhaps - note the silver tape keeping the thing together (photos from Rusty Rae's book Speed and Spray) .

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e4/markdemaray/102_2594.jpg

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e4/markdemaray/102_2595.jpg

One of our big problems over the years was trying to fund our racing and make a living at building and selling boats - we often sold the boats right out from under ourselves - which as I recall, is why Craig was stuck trying to run the floater at the Nationals that year. I almost never had a current boat to run the record courses with in the Fall as I sold my boat each year at the Nationals - Craig did the same thing. I graduated from college in 1976 and was working full time after that so I was finally able to keep my boat in 1977 to run it at the Lawrence Lake record course in September that year.

Mark

[BPIII125V]

Thanks Mark for sharing the pic's and stories with us, they are really great. Looks like vented transoms on the boats, when were they outlawed and how much performance gain did you see with them?

thanks again,

Bill Pavlick

[MarkD]

Bill

All of our boats - hydros and runabouts - did indeed have the vented transoms from the very first ones. Craig got that idea in part from Cliff Bedford. I am not sure how one could measure the exact performance difference - I guess you could tape it up and try it, but I think it would be hard to see any significant difference on the speedo. It was one of those things that we thought could only help, not hurt - and that in total, those 100's of little things would add up to a difference. It also really helped to keep the back of the boats clean........

We had a blast anyway trying to come up with new stuff. I have often commented to my old boat racing friends that if we had put all that energy and thought into making something like computers or cell phone technology work in the 70's, none of us would have to work today.

I am not aware of a rule that would disallow a vented transom today - maybe there is such a rule - but I have not kept up with the rules in the past 20 years to know that.

Mark

[Jerry Combs]

Mark,

Thank you for posting and for posting all of the great pictures. Do you still see Jan, George and Earl? They put my dad and I up in their home when I came up for the Stock Nationals (1967?)

Jerry

[MarkD]

Jerry

The Stock Nationals were here in Seattle in 1968 on Green Lake - I was there watching and had my first race later that year. I saw Jan and George last year at a race - but have not seen them too much in recent years - they both looked great.

I had lunch with Earl last week with Craig and Greg - Earl is now 88 and still pretty active. I think he was the oldest active Stock Outborad racer in the country when he finally quit racing in the 80's or 90's.

Mark

[MarkD]

I found a few more photos of the early Craig Craft hydros - these taken by the great Bob Carver, appeared in the July 31, 1971 Seattle Times sports section reporting on the hydro races at Seattle's Green Lake - where the Stock Outboard Nationals were held in 1968 (sorry for the poor quality but the paper is pretty old and yellowed). We had at least one Green Lake race each season at Green Lake - it's a park right in the middle of the city, and it drew over 100,000 spectators. But with neighborhood complaints and noise issues, increasing fire code issues and insurance requirements, it seems that we were all incorrect in thinking that a park should be used for events of great public interest, so it is no longer a race venue. Too bad as it always drew a lot of interest and therefore, new people to the sport.

This one shows first turn action in ASH with Dan Mackle on the inside in a Karelsen boat, me in 136-R in the middle (the same boat that David posted a the start of this thread that I built in 1971) and it looks to be Jeff Reins in the original "Blimp Craft" on the outside.

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e4/markdemaray/102_2630.jpg

This one shows Mike Selvidge, Greg and Craig's little brother, when he spun out in the second elimination heat of ASH. Bob Carver was uncanny in his ability to forcast and photograph action shots of flips. Not sure who is there on the outside of him - could be Bob Wartinger as I do not recall many other folks that wore a bubble visor like that. Bob did not often run A, but everyone ran every class they could at Green Lake.

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e4/markdemaray/102_2631.jpg

Mark

[champhotrod]

I ran across this photo of My A/15 MD built Craig Craft.
This was taken in early 1974 at Ocoee Florida

Cooper

[Tim Weber]

Hey Coop,

I remember the boat. It was sharp! We didn't see too many of those in region 7. When I first saw those, I thought they were so revolutionary for the time. The front cowling is very similar to what we have today. They were one of the first with all wood decks too.

It would be hard to decide which were the most pretty hydro between Shannon's round nose and Craigs.

Also, got to love the picture of Dick Lovelace's D Stippich quack.

[arcticracer]

Thanks Mark for the great photos. I agree that Ron and Ted have created a great website here. What are the chances of you converting Jim's old video to a DVD? I sure would like to see it. Holler if you need help.