About Crownline

Creation Story

When Fred Claxton turned on the TV set the morning he started Crownline Boats, he saw missiles tracing the sky over Iran. It was the first day of the first Gulf War. The last thing anyone would be thinking about today, he said to himself, would be buying a new boat.

But he couldn’t stop now. Fred already had recruited 15 people whom he considered to be the “best of the best” to join him on his quest to build a better boat company. They had left their security and good paying jobs behind to join him and his fledgling boat enterprise. He couldn’t let them down.

That year the first boats were built in the Whittington School gymnasium and Claxton and his crew discovered that consumers did want new boats after all. The next year they moved to the old mark Twain boat factory. Within five years, they built a new state of the art facility.

Today, Crownline has grown to become a leading manufacturer, marketer, and distributor of stern drive powerboats, becoming the fourth largest boat brand in the world in the 18′ to 35′ long category, and the third largest in boats that are 21′ to 35′.

Today, Crownline is one of the most respected brands in the boating industry.