Water Speed Capital

For more than a century, Algonac has played a leading role in ship building, from sailing cargo ships to large pleasure craft, racing boats and World War II landing craft. Between 1921 and 1932 Christopher Smith and Gar Wood built ten Miss Americas in Algonac. Smith and Wood worked together on the first; however, Wood was responsible for the rest. The Miss Americas held the Harmsworth trophy, symbol of the world’s water speed supremacy, from 1921 to 1933. In 1932 Wood’s Miss America X raced over a measured mile to establish the world’s water speed record at 124.91 miles per hour. During the 1930s Smith adopted the name Chris Craft Corporation. The firm became one of the world’s largest builders of power pleasure boats. Headquartered in Algonac for many years, it had other manufacturing plants in Michigan, Ohio, Missouri, Tennessee, Florida and Italy.