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Ilika – A Chris–Craft 31’ Sea Strake Model Power Cruiser
by John MacFarlane and Charles Erskine 2018
The Ilika (Photo from the Charles Erskine and John Knowles collections.)
Charles Erskine says "my boat is the Ilika, a 31’ 1964 Chris–Craft power cruiser."
Charles Erskine states that "since my purchase on April 01, 2013 I have put in a good bit of time, energy, and money restoring her to proper condition. Over the next few years, with some further upgrades, I hope to have her Bristol–fashion."
The Ilika (Photo from the Charles Erskine and John Knowles collections.)
The boat specifications as listed in the book by Jerry Conrad, "Chris Craft: The Essential Guide" Published by the Mariners Museum in Newport News, VA. (Photo from the Charles Erskine collection.)
The boat card issued by Chris Craft at the time of delivery to the dealer (Photo from the Charles Erskine collection.)
Michigan native Chris Smith started building boats for his friends in the late 1800s and he adopted the name Chris–Craft in 1930. Originally catering to wealthy customers, Chris–Craft appealed to middle class boaters when it became one of the first mass producers of pleasure boats in the 1920s. Their boats were often made from mahogany and had a distinctive look that stands out even today (white hull, mahogany superstructure). Although the company has changed hands it is now known as Chris–Craft Industries (incorporated in 1962). Old boat aficionados still love these older vessels and many can still be seen afloat in British Columbia Waters. They are always "head turners".
The boat card states that Ilika was first delivered to the Vancouver Marine Center Ltd., 5776 W. Marine Drive, Vancouver, BC.
The Mariners Museum in Newport News Virginia has all the original records of Chris-Craft including all the original boat cards. In an amazing effort of record keeping they filled out one of these cards for every hull they built and it is possible to find original specifications for any existing boat.
To quote from this article please cite:
MacFarlane, John M. (2018) Ilika – A Chris–Craft 31’ Sea Strake Model Power Cruiser. Nauticapedia.ca 2018. http://nauticapedia.ca/Gallery/Ilika.php
Site News: April 21, 2024
The vessel database has been updated and is now holding 92,266 vessel histories (with 15,629 images and 13,259 records of ship wrecks and marine disasters). The mariner and naval biography database has also been updated and now contains 58,616 entries (with 4,013 images).
In 2023 the Nauticapedia celebrated the 50th Anniversary of it’s original inception in 1973 (initially it was on 3" x 5" file cards). It has developed, expanded, digitized and enlarged in those ensuing years to what it is now online. If it was printed out it would fill more than 300,000 pages!
My special thanks to our volunteer IT adviser, John Eyre, who (since 2021) has modernized, simplified and improved the update process for the databases into a semi–automated processes. His participation has been vital to keeping the Nauticapedia available to our netizens.
Also my special thanks to my volunteer content accuracy checker, John Spivey of Irvine CA USA, who has proofread thousands of Nauticapedia vessel histories and provided input to improve more than 11,000 entries. His attention to detail has been a huge unexpected bonus in improving and updating the vessel detail content.