CHRIS-CRAFT
Previous spread: Pavlos Issaias still loves to get out in his father’s Chris- Craft Capri 19 Above: She has been meticulously restored by Giacomo Lazzari on Lake Iseo Opposite: Hitting 35 knots with a brand new 5.7L V8 Mercruiser engine
F 50 CLASSIC BOAT MAY 2012
ew people have the chance to own the boat that enchanted their childhood. For Pavlos Issaias, this was the Chris-Craft Capri 19 that his father had bought from the Greek billionaire and yachtsman Stavros Niarchos, and which Pavlos
has now carefully restored.
Petros Issaias, a leading Greek public works contractor, bought the boat in the late 1950s from his fellow countryman, the shipping tycoon Stavros Niarchos, who had the runabout imported from the US as a tender to his famous three-masted sailing yacht, Creole. Chris-Craft was then the world-leading manufacturer of pleasure motor boats, with a brand name that had entered into everyday language just as ‘Frigidaire’ had become synonymous with refrigerators. Within its vast range of products, the Algonac, Michigan, yard still offered a very classic line of runabouts in which the Capri occupied a prominent place. It is perhaps not surprising that Niarchos appreciated the speedboat’s elegance, as it reflected the lines of his
fabulous sailing yacht. Yet this beautiful launch lacked the convenience of an open bay in the rear deck, and since there was only room for one tender, the powerful magnate sold his Chris-Craft, as new, to Petros Issaias, recently married and father of a baby boy. The father’s gleaming runabout quickly became the son’s infatuation, synonymous with speed and pleasure.
When Pavlos decided to settle in Italy with his family some 10 years ago, he brought with him his father’s Chris-Craft Capri 19 and today, it is his young daughter, along with his wife, that he photographs aboard the inherited boat. First, however, the Capri had to be restored to perfection, and it was to take a few years to find the right yard to do this. Ultimately, it was Giacomo Lazzari who would work wonders on the craft, in his discreet workshops at Sarnico, on Lake Iseo near Bergamo, where he is more accustomed to working on mahogany Rivas. The result is the envy of the best American restoration specialists.
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