Welcome to Chris-Craft.org, home of the largest and longest-standing antique and classic boat marque club in the world.

Another year, another day, another need!

Please see our new, but growing Chris-Craft Wiki at: www.chris-craft.org/wiki

For those of you who are not familiar with the concept of a "Wiki," it is kind of like a shared, open source, web-based encyclopedia. A Wiki is written, edited, and shared by all of us. A Wiki tends to become more in-depth and accurate as time passes, as there is a natural "check and balance" system of editing. If something is wrong, it tends to be corrected by others. I have been trying to map out a few basics, paying particular attention to Chris-Craft history, the Divisions and Hull Construction methods. I will soon be turning my sights to one particular model that I know something about the "Deluxe Ruanbout."

Now, I need help from all of you!. You'll note that our Chris-Craft Wiki shows links to pages for every model of Chris-Craft. Some are well known, like the "Custom Runabouts", or the "Commanders." Others are more obscure like the "Jolly Outboard."

I need to find "subject matter experts" for each of the models listed. Bret Kiddey, how about writing something on the Commander series? You can cover the wood Commanders, and Paul Pletcher or Rob Cutchins can join in on the glass Commanders. How about you, Kerry Price, on the Custom Runabouts, or at least a section on the 20-foot Customs?

This is how a Wiki works. The page on Commanders and Customs could be pretty extensive, as all Commander models/eras and all Custom lengths/eras will need to be covered. But this is also what makes this a tremendous shared resource as well.

You are all "subject matter experts" in your own corner of the Chris-Craft Universe. Heck, Peter van der Hoeven knows more about XKs than I could learn in a lifetime.

If we all join in, and write a little bit about the eras, the company, or the specific models that we know something about, before long we'll all know where to turn to find out more about the "Jolly Outboard" or the "6.9 Metre."

Here are a few simple rules of Wiki editing:

1. Put something out there! Others will correct it if it needs to be corrected.
2. The very nautre of a Wiki is that it can be edited by anyone at any time. There is a page history function that allows us to see who changed what, and when.
3. Red links in the wiki language are links to pages that do not exist yet. If you click on a red link you will be led to a page editing form. Type something and click submit. That's it. The red link to that page will then turn blue, which means "the page exists." Once the page is "real" it can be added to, edited, and so on.
4. You can create links to other wiki pages. For example, a page about "Commanders" can link to a page about the "Corsair Division."
5. You can link to outside web pages.
6. You can embed photos.
7. You can link to examples in the Hull Registry
8. You can link to examples in the online Archive
9. Be original in your writings. Aside from plagiarism issues associated with copy-pasting from other web sites, Google, and other search engines likes good, original content, that is not replicated elsewhere on the web.

Let's not get too bogged down in too much too soon. Let's concentrate on turning as many of the red models links blue.

See http://www.chris-craft.org/wiki/index.php/Chris-Craft:1950_to_1958%2C_Kit_Boat_Division for a wiki page that is fairly well rounded out.

The idea is to make the Wiki a factual resource. If any of you find a flaw, or something that can be made clearer, or better stated, go ahead and suggest a change to the page. Each wiki page has a link at the top that says"Edit."

OK?