Chris Craft Owner Research
 

All,
I bought a 1961 24' Chris Craft Sportsman about 3 years ago. I am trying to trace the ownership back to the original buyer just for my own curiosity. The New Hampshire DMV, unfortunately, doesn't believe that registration records should be public, so I've hit a road block in my search. I know the boat lived on Winnipesaukee for a number of years. I believe it was sold from the lake in 1992 to a gentleman in North Carolina (I have all of that information). The hull number is CUA-24-0007C. I have looked through the Chris Craft club archives as well as some of the ACBS and haven't found anything. Does anyone here have an idea on how I could keep hunting for this info? Much appreciated!!

In the boating part of the forum, there is a similar thread. You may get some help there. Welcome to the forum.

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First, congratulations on that beautiful boat, that's really something. This will be a long shot but there was a boat very much like that on the Tuftonborough mainland near the Barbers Pole in my younger years, it was in the white boat house with the big white house behind it . (It wasn't quite as big in the day as it is now, the present owners added a large addition in the 90's). I believe the name of the family that had the Sportsman was Dagnino if I'm remembering correctly. I don't remember seeing a lot of Sportsman models relative to the other Chris Crafts so it's a possibility... Good luck!

any chance you could point out the property on google maps?

Someone replied and said they think the Dagninos boat is not the one I own now. Here is a satellite image of the Barber Pole region. Where abouts is this boat house? Also where does the name Barber Poles come from? I would love to see a post about how the names of all these islands and areas came to be!

Ursa, you must be taking about the house now owned by George Elkins.

Try contacting Irwin Marine in Laconia. They were the Chris Craft dealer back when your boat was built. http://irwinmarine.com/

The boat house is right about where the top of the marker is. I've heard the Barber Pole name came from the spiral cuts left in trees from cables used to pull logs through the "channel".

This is from Google Earth. Tis is correct, I believe the family name that now owns this property is Elkins. They've done a nice job of restoring the boathouse over the years, the main house is quite a bit bigger than it was years ago.

Again, no way to know if the Dagnino boat is yours but maybe a start. Sorry for not noticing your Illinois location and assuming that you'd know the local names.

As to the Barber Pole name, I've also heard the explanation that KPW has. When we were kids you could still see some sunken logs on the bottom of the channel on a sunny day. I'd assume that they're still there. Some of them may have been left over from the aftermath of the 1938 hurricane, I heard that a lot of logs were dragged into the lake to both float them to where they could be taken to a mill as well as to keep the insects from getting to the logs. Way before my time but that's what we heard as kids.

I spoke to Irwin marine and they unfortunately have no record. I know Mike McSwain was the guy who found the boat on winnipesaukee. His names comes up a few times in Irwin's records, but for different boats.

Boat House
 

I believe that the boat house is being repaired or rebuilt this year. kx

Kerk,

There is work going on in that area but it's not the old Dagnino / now Elkins property, it's just north of that property. Sadly (for me anyways) that was the "Foxwoods" boathouse and lake house that have been removed and are being rebuilt. We knew the previous owners and have some great memories from past times with them. I wish the new owners well and understand that change is inevitable, I just hate to see the classic old lake houses go. It's happened a few times now, guess I'm getting old. :)

Have you contacted Chris Craft directly...they may have had original owner registration info submitted by the dealership in their database. Might be worth a call.....