This post has been edited to announce, the boat has been sold. John Kloka is the lucky guy!
From Lake St. Clair, home of some of the finest Chris Craft freshwater boats anywhere, is David Lendzion’s 1969 35’ Commander, CHA CHA. In addition to photos of his own boat, David sent in some spectacular photos of other Chris Craft boats. One of his files is 12 mb and I'll have to open that one with another computer! In any case, here's what we're able to open this evening, and from the looks of things, it sure must be fun to be able to motor out onto beautiful Lake St. Clair, and see so many other great Commanders. I know of several big and small Commanders that are based on this lake, and there must be hundreds more.
This model was built in 1968. 69, 70, 71, and 1972. In five years, 222 of these beautiful hulls were manufactured, some in the Commander version we see here, and another 164 in a flybridge Sports Cruiser model, and another 25 in a 35’ Commander Salon. This boat has the same beam as a 38’ Commander, and came with power options including the 327F, 327Q, or 427. These boats weigh just shy of 14,000 pounds, with the low production Salon tipping the scales at a hefty 16,000+ Dave indicates this boat was repowered with a pair of 275-hp 350 small blocks (in 1995), and it has a long list of equipment including GPS, air conditioning, generator, and many interior cosmetic upgrades.
Note: On the image above, the boat "TOAST & JAM" is not the boat being featured, it's a similar boat, and both boats in this frame are shown out in Lake St. Clair at a rendezvous point. Looks like great fun to me! If you look closely, CHA CHA has what looks like an additional forward leaning support that affixes to the back edge of the hardtop.
The helm station looks reminiscent of a 38, located on the Port side, but with more modern hardware. The tachs are different, the steering wheel is smaller, the windshield hardware is a different operating mechanism, but this boat is all Chris Craft and everything is in it’s proper place. It’s a really nice design. Below, a view of the helm station.
Here we can see the real depth of the hull structure, and you can see it’s massive for the length of the boat. This hull is hefty, beamy, and strong. The 35 is a sea worthy boat with a lot of room for it’s length. At 4-feet longer than a 31, this is a "lot more boat".
Here we see CHA CHA at anchor, showing off the trademark pointed transom and her overall good lines.
Thanks Dave, for taking the time to send in these photos. I understand you are making plans to sell this boat, and we’ll try to assist you with some coverage here on the Forum. We doubly appreciate the images so we can share these with others, and help document this good looking 35’ classic Chris Craft.
The boat is for sale at an asking price of $52,000. Anyone interested in this boat, can get in contact with David at ************************** address and telephone number deleted for privacy considerations.
Standard Note:
This forum is non-commercial, we don't ask for or accept any money for anything, and we don't ask for any personal information, emails, whatever. We do, however, gladly accept photos and information about various models of Chris Craft Commanders, in order to share this with our readers. We are also delighted to be able to help hook up an enthusiastic boat seeker with a good Commander that is for sale, and this is a "win/win" situation. We don't warrant any condition, quality, engine hours, etc., we're just trying to help.
So many boats, so little time...............
Regards, Paul