Crownline Yachts for Sale

Crownline is a southern Illinois company. Fred Claxton built the first boat, a 182 BR, at Whittington in March 1991 with fewer than 25 people and not a single signed dealer, moved that July into the old Mark Twain Boat Company building at West Frankfort, and opened a purpose built plant there in December 1994. The line has always been trailerable family boats, from a 17 foot 6 inch open bow up to cabin cruisers in the low thirties, sold through a large dealer network at home and abroad. Production stopped in late 2008 and the company was bought in September 2009 by Tony Zielinski and Dave and Lisa Wilson, who own Misty Harbor and Ultracraft, and it has run under that ownership since. The current lineup is the SS, LPX, XSS, EXS and E series plus Cruisers, with an outboard fishing line called Finseeker, and most of the hulls use the patented F.A.S.T. Tab design, vented chines with small fins that keep the boat planted in a turn.

These trade as used family boats and they should be judged like used cars: the hull is rarely the problem, the drivetrain and the soft goods are. On any stern drive Crownline, price a full drive service before you agree anything, and have the bellows, gimbal bearing, transom assembly and exhaust manifolds looked at, because that work costs the same whether the boat cost thirty thousand dollars or eighty. Ask where the boat has lived, since an inland lake boat and a boat that has sat on a lift in salt water are two different mechanical propositions at the same age. On boats from the 1990s and early 2000s check the deck and stringers for water, and price new upholstery and canvas honestly, because on a boat this size that bill is a big fraction of the asking price. Crownline is still in business at the same plant, so parts and gelcoat are obtainable, but remember that a boat built before 2009 was built by a company under different ownership and nobody is honoring a warranty on it.