In 1962 Chris Craft acquired Thompson Boat Company of New York for two purposes. One : to neutralize some of their competition, but more importantly, Two: to utilize the Thompson facility to produce fiberglass boats.
Here is a 1963 brochure showing the rare use of Thompson and Chris Craft on the same publication. The boats are all traditional Thompson designs, and I don’t know if CC had any say in changing any details, etc., at the time. Note the Thompson name on the side of the boat.
Chris Craft was building their Sea Skiff at this time too, and to many people, the Sea Skiff, Lyman, Thompson, and Century Raven all looked alike. The seasoned boat show fan can tell the difference at a distance, but these boats are all built to a ‘Skiff” design. I think Chris Craft put more flair in the forward hulls, and had a nicer windshield design.
Now enter Chris Craft right in the middle of Thompson’s world. Production resumed in wood just long enough for Chris Craft to build a new building on the adjacent property for fiberglass boats, and then the wood construction activities wound down as fiberglass took over.
Three years later, in 1966 they were producing this green hulled fiberglass boat, which I am presently restoring. I am wondering if they actually took a mold off one of their beautiful wood boats. The resemblance is rather obvious. Green was a traditional Sea Skiff color on some of the models, including the 1968 35’ Sea Skiff Clipper.
The name was changed to the “Chris Craft Sea Skiff” and the construction was fiberglass, but inside there is a plaque that says “Thompson Chris Craft”. The underside of all the seats has a cloth sticker that says “Thompson”. The plant that Chris Craft built next door to the old Thompson Boat Company of New York was then called the "Corsair Division". At one point we can see Corsair, Thompson, and Chris Craft on the same page, see plaque below!
The Thompson name didn’t appear on the outside of the boats any more, it was eventually dropped all together.
Paul