We've covered our fair share of speedboats since we've branched off into non-automobile-related vehicles at autoevolution. The bulk tends to be more modern, from an era when the gap between a small luxury yacht and a speed boat gets blurry each year. Now, carbon composite building materials and high-tech computerized everything brings these vessels into the space age.
Back in the mid-1960s, there was no such thing as composite metals. Even the Saturn V NASA rocket that took men to the moon was made almost entirely out of aluminum alloy, with a sprinkling of stainless steel and titanium wherever they could spare. With that in mind, your options when it came to building a 20-foot or so-sized speedboat were steel, aluminum, or old-fashioned wood. The stunning 1964 Chris-Craft Super Sport is honed from the latter of these. It has a killer V8 engine to boot.
For those uninitiated, Chris-Craft boats is a name that dates back to when Henry Ford was still in grade school. So to say, it pre-dates just about every automotive giant. Founded by Chris Smith when he built his first wooden boat at just 13 years old in 1874, he was selling high-end wooden power boats to America's gilded elite like William Randolph Hearst and even Old Man Ford himself by the mid-1920s.
By the mid-1950s, the company had expanded into fiberglass and even all metal boat manufacturing. But their bread and butter were always wooden boats handcrafted by skilled artisans in a little town called Algonac, Michigan, just north of Detroit. It's from this group of craftsmen that this 1964 20-foot runabout was manufactured. After almost six decades, it's looking pretty fantastic if you ask us.
No water-logged wooden planks, chipping chrome trim pieces, or badly-patched holes in the hull to be found on this beauty for sale via a Bring a Trailer user based in Lakeview, Ohio. Another small mid-western town roughly in between the cities of Dayton and Toledo. According to the seller, the boat received a comprehensive cosmetic overhaul in 2006, a big reason why the boat looks so fantastic even 16 years post-detail
Photo: BaT User: chadwickwalther
With only 809 operating hours indicated since 1964, this boat's no doubt spent more time being admired in dry-dock than it's had to rev the snot out of it on the water. Of course, the engine mounted inside this boat is a marvel in its own right. It's a marine V8 gasoline engine based on the same architecture as the 390-cubic inch (6.4-liter) Ford FE V8 commonly found in the mid-60s Ford Fairlane, Mercury Comet, and later the Mustang and Cougar GT, among others.
The engine was assembled by Dearborn Marine Engines of Michigan and labeled under their Interceptor line of Marine V8 engines. The engine breathes through a special Holley 650 marine carburetor. Its wicked-looking Weiand valve covers only make us wish it also had a Weiand supercharger. A small nitpick, admittedly. The engine's power is fed to a simple one-speed forward and reverse transmission and a single propeller. With 260 gross horsepower from the factory, it's plenty of power for such a small boat.
Outside of its engine, the rest of this boat, both inside and out, is like the spitting image of the day it first took to the water. Not a single chip of falling paint nor any cracks in the dashboard defiles what is, in a sense, a time capsule into how different 1960s recreational speed boats were from their modern counterparts. A tasteful and stylish Chris-Craft emblem flanks the boat's right side, and all the chrome shines with the vigor of an eternally sunny early summer afternoon.
Moving to the interior, an automotive-style steering wheel with a Chris-Craft center cap is joined by an equally automotive-looking gauge cluster, complete with a speedometer, tachometer, temp gauge, and oil pressure dial. Combined with the soft touch of two-tone turquoise and white vinyl, it might as well be a 1964 Chevy Bel Air inside. How much money you spend on an equivalent modern speedboat doesn't matter. It will never have a hope of having the same charm this Christ-Craft Supersport exudes without even trying.
Photo: BaT User: chadwickwalther
Even the Venture double-axle trailer the boat sits on in transport is fairly nice. With brand new 205/75 tires on 14-inch wheels, it'll get your boat where you need it to go with no problem. With seven days left in the auction as of September 23rd, 2022, a current bid of $3,111 could very well jump tenfold if enough eyeballs see the listing. If you ask us, it's at least worth that much.
Check back soon for more from V8 Month here on autoevolution.
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