Anyone familiar with a Chris Craft Caprice?

I'm looking for a boat that will handle the open sea and do long passages.

 

Nice boat

 

I have tried to find some info about Chris Craft Caprices on line, but I couldn't really find anything - HCB, do you have any links or photos that you could post for reference please?

And changing tack, are you still keen on converting a sailboat to be able to have an inside helm position, as per your previous thread?

 

I found this page with some information https://sailboatdata.com/sailboat/capri-30-chris-craft I'm still interested in converting a boat yes, I like the idea of being out of the rain, wind etc.

 

Need more info. Chris Craft Caprice? What year, length, type etc. Photo would help. I have been a follower of Chris Craft for years. A very good friend and co-worker of mine was their chief engineer back in the 60's. I caught the bug from him. But the Caprice is a new one on me. Found a Sport Craft Caprice, but that's not a Chris Craft. Are you sure you don't mean the Capri. The Capri is a much smaller boat than you seem to be looking for.

 

Ah, that is more clear now - I was thinking that a Caprice was one of their older types of wooden runabout.

The Capri 30 seems to be a nice boat - I remember meeting one once in Bequia about 20 years ago - her owner was singlehanded, and he had sailed down to the Caribbean from the Eastern Seaboard.
However I do not think that one of these vessels would be a good candidate for conversion as per your other thread (link below).
Removing rear deck and continuing cabin to stern. https://www.boatdesign.net/threads/removing-rear-deck-and-continuing-cabin-to-stern.63883/
And I still think that you would be better off looking for an existing type of motorsailer or sailing boat with a pilothouse or deck saloon, rather than trying to convert a 'conventional' aft cockpit sailing boat.

 

I am not very familiar with Chris Crafts sailboats. They built a string of different sailboats form 1962 to 1976 in various sizes from 26 ft up to 42 feet. Apparently Cornelius Shields was a major investor and he was big into sailing and thought they should produce sailboats as well as their line of powerboats. Of course when the company was sold and became Murray Chris Craft that stopped. I suspect they were losing money on the sailboats. But anything designed and built before they sold it to Murray was pretty good quality. Quality went downhill for a while. I did an investigation of 28 foot Express Cruisers in 1978 that were sinking because the stem was splitting open. It was a simple case of to little glass, and resin starved glass. They had to recall several hundred 26 and 28 foot Express cruisers. When the British company bought them (can't remember the name), quality started going back up. Now some one else owns it. Don't know much about them now. All their old records and blueprints were donated to the Mariners Museum in Newport News, VA. Ask about the Chris Craft Collection