This is a handmade “Boat Bar” that was built using an original 1948 Chris-Craft Deluxe Runabout 17 foot that was cut in half on the centerline.

Once the original vessel was bisected, it was carefully converted into a bar with cabinets, a refrigerator, a glass rack, a bottle rack and a white quartz bar. The door handles on the cabinets are all miniature ship’s wheels and come with three bar stools and custom wine glasses.

Chris-Craft is one of America’s most famous boat builders, founded 150 years ago in 1874 by Christopher Columbus Smith in Algonac, Michigan. Smith had built his first wooden boat at the age of 13, using lessons learned he later built a duck hunting boat.

This duck hunting boat became popular with Smith’s friends, some of whom asked him to build them one, and thus the company was born. Chris-Craft began building elegant mahogany racing boats in the 1910s and 1920s, and this would be the style of boat for which the company would become best known.

Over the years, many of America’s biggest celebrities would own and be photographed in Chris-Craft boats, including Elvis Presley, Dean Martin, Katharine Hepburn and Frank Sinatra.

Images: David Bush ©2024 Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s