C&C Yachts was a builder of high-performance fiberglass monohull sailboats with production facilities in Canada, Germany, and the United States.[1] C&C designed and constructed a full range of production line cruiser-racer boats, as well as custom one-off and short production run racing and cruising boats. C&C boats ranged in size from as small as 21ft (6.4m) to as large as 67ft (20.4m). C&C also produced a line of bluewater cruising boats in the 35ft (10.7m) to 48ft (14.6m) range under its Landfall brand. In addition, C&C designed sailboats for production by a number of other manufacturers such as CS Yachts, Mirage Yachts, Northern Yachts, Ontario Yachts, Paceship Yachts, and Tanzer Industries.[3]
C&C was founded in 1969 as a public company in Canada, which resulted from a joint venture among several companies and design teams.[4] At the peak of its market success, the company supplied 50% of the Canadian market and 20% of the US market.[2][5]
Two Canadian sailors; George Cuthbertson, a mechanical engineer, and George Cassian, an aircraft designer, then unemployed following the demise of the Avro Arrow jet project,[6] formed the Cuthbertson and Cassian design group in 1961.[7] This partnership evolved out of Cuthbertson's previous yacht brokerage and design firm. Inishfree, the 54ft (16.5m) racing yacht built 1958, was Cuthbertson's first design of consequence.[8] Cuthbertson initially held 75% interest in the company and later increased Cassian's share to a third. They started by designing a small number of steel and wooden boats, with Cuthbertson doing the preliminary lines and calculations and Cassian the interior plans and details.[1]
After successful design of the Hinterhoeller Invader 36, in 1965 Canadian Perry Connolly (who had previously purchased an Invader 36) commissioned Cuthbertson and Cassian to design a custom 40-foot (12m) racing sloop. At a discussion between periods at a Toronto Maple Leafs game in Maple Leaf Gardens Connolly requested "the meanest, hungriest 40-footer afloat".[6] The boat, named Red Jacket, was built by Bruckmann Manufacturing of balsa wood sandwiched between two layers of fibreglass.[9] The resulting structure was strong, stiff and significantly lighter than the wood or solid fiberglass yachts then sailing. Red Jacket is considered to be the first sailboat engineered with a cored hull (the practice is common in yacht-building and aerospace, even in the manufacture of wind-turbine blades today).[10] She was launched in May 1966 and won 11 of 13 starts that summer. That winter, Red Jacket headed south and won a number of races on the famed Southern Ocean Racing Conference (SORC), competing against more than 85 of the best racers of the day. Connolly went back the next year, and Red Jacket was, in 1968, the first Canadian boat to win the SORC.[9] The sailing community at large paid attention and demand for the C&C designs in production skyrocketed.[1]
C&C joined forces with their builders and suppliers: Belleville Marine yacht builder Ian Morch, George Hinterhoeller of Hinterhoeller Yachts and custom builder Erik Bruckmann. Together they formed a holding company, C&C Yachts Limited, officially formed on September 26, 1969.,[1] which was traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange[6] with the help of an IPO by Walwyn, Stodgell & Co., an issue of 350,000 common shares at $4.50, providing the fledgling company with working capital of $1.5 million. The company started the mass production of fiberglass sailboats, a relatively new industry at that time. The sale of stock enabled C&C to build inventory in the off-season, which would then be delivered to dealers in the spring and early summer. It allowed efficiencies which were otherwise impossible.[2][4]
Owing to his degrees in engineering from the University of Toronto, and business administration from the University of Southern California, Ian Morch was made president. George Cuthbertson directed the design effort, Erich Bruckmann the custom work, and George Hinterhoeller managed production.[2][1] The plant at Niagara-on-the-Lake was "a completely integrated operation" aside from lead keel casting. The plant contained a rigging shop, a metal shop, a wood shop, a fiberglass shop, a upholstery shop, and an assembly area. In the operation conceived by Hinterhoeller, the yachts were built in pits, as opposed to the state-of-the-art which required a boatbuilder to use a ladder to mount the erected hull and keel.[11]
In 1969 the customs tariff to import yachts from the US into Canada was 17.5% and C&C achieved sales of $3.9 million its first year.[4]
Expansion
One of the C&C Yachts expansion facilities, this one in Kiel, Germany
C&C's reputation was based on its racing successes. The year of the merger brought a challenge for the Canada's Cup, a match-race between Canada and the US. C&C's custom shop, Bruckmann Manufacturing of Oakville, Ontario, built the three Canadian defenders, Manitou, Bagatelle and True North, of which, Manitou, beat the Sparkman and Stephens-designed Niagara. In 1971 hull #1 of the 43ft (13.1m) "Limited Edition" series, Arieto, won first in Class B of the SORC, and the Montego Bay Race. Also in 1971, Endurance, a 43-footer as well, won the Chicago-Mackinac Race. In 1972, Condor, the prototype Redline 41 won SORC overall and the 43 foot Arieto won the Nassau and Governor's cups.[1]
During the formative years of C&C Yachts the company sold their early racing hull molds to build capital for development of a comprehensive line of C&C branded racer/cruisers. For example, the venerable Redline 41 design was sold to Lindsay Plastics for production and became the Newport 41 which was later produced by Capital Yachts.[1]
The demands of managing a large multi-national company, with the attendant problems of finance and being answerable to a board of directors, in 1973 led Cuthbertson to take on the position of president, and hand over his design responsibilities to Robert Ball.[7]
High oil prices and a strong Canadian dollar provided the environment for rapid growth for C&C and the entire sailing industry. In 1974, Cuthbertson was elected to membership in the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.[6] C&C experienced double-digit growth throughout the decade of the 1970s. Plant expansion into the Port of Rhode Island and 56,000 square foot facility in Middletown, Rhode Island, and the development of a dealer network, proved instrumental factors in a strong business model, but in Kiel, Germany the firm ran into foreign exchange problems when the Deutschmark doubled 1977-1979.[4] Hank Evans joined the company in 1977 to establish a network of inland dealers and once that job was done he stepped into the role of sales manager for the entire line.[12] Dealers found it easy to sell a product with a strong reputation for reliability and high performance. But the death of George Cassian in 1979 cast its pall over affairs.[4]
C&C became the breeding ground for the next generation of boat designers, employing young designers such as Henry Adriaanse, Rob Mazza, Rob Ball, Mark Ellis, and Steve Killing.[2] Designer Mark Ellis left the company in 1976 to draw the Niagara and Nonsuch sailboats for George Hinterhoeller, who had sold his shares in C&C that same year.[4]Robert W. Ball was the chief in-house designer until 1991.[1][13]
Every Canadian Canada's Cup contender between 1969 and 1978 was a C&C product. The Canada's Cup winner in 1978 was a C&C design, the Two Ton classEvergreen,[14] owned by Don Green with Hans Fogh at the helm.[15] The design was a radical, dinghy-like, 41-foot boat, designed with the aim of winning the trophy. The catastrophic failure of the mast during a "stiff breeze" on Lake Ontario while on a shakedown cruise may have been indicative of design issues,[16] as the C&C design team had exploited loopholes in the regatta rules. As one example, the galley was required to have sink but, in order to save weight, it had no drain, which the rule makers had not thought to specify. The deck hatches opened inward, which could be a safety hazard if they gave way during a capsize or broach, and the Evergreen crew faced protests over this defect in both the SORC and in the Canada's Cup.[17] Upon reflection over the 1979 Fastnet race in which he participated, Skipper Green later said that Evergreen "never should have gone to England" for the Admiral's Cup, which is the destination of most Canada's Cup winners.[16]Canadian Yachting magazine stated fifteen years later that "few yachts have created more controversy than" Evergreen, and that "its extreme design and controversial features ruffled feathers around the world." After the competition that year, the rule books were rewritten to preclude safety problems like those raised by the design of Evergreen, and as a result, C&C never received another commission for a Canada's Cup yacht.[4]
By the early 1980s, C&C found itself at the forefront of the sailing industry, from both sailing performance and business success:
C&C had built more that seven thousand boats since its foundling in 1969. At it highest in 1984, sales were estimated at about $44 million and profits at about $2 million, placing it in the top three North American sailboat builders, along with Hunter Marine and Catalina Yachts.[18]
Sale of company
Cuthbertson presided over the works until 1981.[4] The success of the 1980 financial year, including sales of $39.7m, delivering a profit of $1.24 per share, brought the unwanted attention of a C&C customer, Jim Plaxton[4] of Great Lakes Airlines fame, who was interested in buying the company.[19] The directors together owned 65 percent of the existing 404,000 shares,[1] which were then trading at around $3.50. The original IPO share price was $4.50 and that was the offer Plaxton made for 51% of the company. The board refused.[4] Meanwhile, Plaxton had formed, with the Deluce family, Delplax holdings to manage what became Air Ontario,[19] and Delplax offered $5.25 a share, this time for all of the shares.[4] The board again demurred, and the offer was raised to $6.00. This was accepted,[4] and so the company was acquired by people unfamiliar with the industry.[1] The company was de-listed from the stock market, as all of its shares were now in private hands.[4] In 1982 Cuthbertson left the company he had founded 20 years earlier.[7] The unfriendly buyout caused 80% of the heyday staff to leave in the Cuthbertson exodus, by 1983.[12]
Plaxton instructed the designers "to undertake a flat-out offshore racer according to the IOR rule."[20] He wanted novel construction materials and novel construction processes to replace the balsa-wood core structures that had been the staple of the firm until the management changeover.[21] The 41' boat that resulted from these instructions, Silver Shadow III,[4] measures a 12'11" beam,[20] while the 41' Evergreen, produced a scant four years earlier, measures 14.25'.[15] The owner and operator of Silver Shadow III, Plaxton,[22] "decided not to participate" in the 1983 Admiral's Cup,[20] and his yacht's place was taken by another C&C boat, Magistri, which was also designed in 1982.[23][20] This Cup team of three boats managed a fifth-place finish,[24] an all-time high for Canada.[4]
In 1985, under Ball's supervision, C&C's design office had grown to eleven staff,[25] and the firm experienced its racing nadir, with the poor performance at SORC of the company-backed custom 44 Silver Shadow IV,[4] also a 12'11" beam but on a lengthened 43'7" long yacht.[21] Estimates of the total cost of the project approach $1 million. By November 1985, the plant in Middletown was closed, the last of the international manufacturing locations. C&C was left with one single manufacturing operation in Niagara-on-the-Lake when the custom shop in Oakville was closed and the company entered receivership. By 1986, a partnership including Mutual Trust purchased C&C from the receivers. After a financial audit in 1988, an executive of the trust assumed control of the operation.[4]
In the late 1980s rising costs and a shrinking market caused the closure of many boat manufacturers, including Quebec-based Tanzer Industries and Mirage Yachts. The day after the end of the 1990 Toronto International Boat Show, C&C had announced that it needed a cash infusion. The company was again placed in receivership in September, with no prospective buyers and the creditors seeking payment of debts.[4]
C&C Yachts International
In 1992, there was a temporary reprieve. All assets of C&C Yachts were purchased by the Hong Kong based shipping magnates, Anthony Koo and Frank Chow, who then operated the new organization as C&C Yachts International.[4] By 1994, the Niagara-on-the-Lake factory was operating at capacity, building the new C&C 51, the Tripp designed IMS 45, as well as the SR range of sport boats, designed by Glenn Henderson, which were originally built in Florida.[26]
Niagara-on-the-Lake factory fire - April 1994
On 21 April 1994 a fire broke out in the factory, completely destroying the production line, most of the tooling, records and plans. The 1:30a.m. blaze tore through C&C's production sheds and block-long warehouse that housed the production equipment and fibreglass materials. The fire destroyed 40 molds and the boats currently under construction, including three C&C 51s.[27]
The company's insurance only covered a small portion of the loss and in 1996 the land, boat tooling and trademarks were all sold.[1][28]
In 1996 the C&C brand and its intellectual materials were acquired by Fairport Yachts, builders of Tartan Yachts, and moved to Fairport, Ohio, where the company started the production of a new line of C&C yachts. These new boats, designed by Tartan's in-house designer Tim Jackett, were intended to preserve the design characteristics and performance of the C&C brand.[29] Starting in 1997, C&C Yachts introduced four new models, the C&C 99, 110, 115, and 121, producing over 150 boats under the new leadership. In 2002, C&C built its entire line with post-cured, foam-cored epoxy hulls with uni-directional "E"-glass and carbon local reinforcements. Beginning in 2004, C&C started equipping all models with carbon-fiber masts as standard equipment.[citation needed]
US Watercraft era and closure
In September 2013, US Watercraft announced that it had bought the rights to the C&C brand from Tartan and would take over manufacturing of all new C&C models starting in the fall of 2013.[30]
US Watercraft entered receivership in July 2017 to sell its assets, but by the summer of 2018 no buyer had been found, the C&C website had been blanked and production of the last two models, the Redline 41 and C&C 30 One Design ended.[31][32]
Cuthbertson archive
The Marine Museum of the Great Lakes in Kingston, Ontario has in its archives the early original C&C design and construction drawings, a retirement donation by Cuthbertson of his papers. In 2008 Jackett, whose company bought the C&C name in 1996, donated the rest of the Cuthbertson papers and more, dating from 1972 through to the late 1980s.[33] Cuthbertson died at the age of 88 on 3 October 2017; he had served on the board of directors of the MMGL for many years, and had been inducted into the Canadian Sailing Hall of Fame in 2014.[7]
Over the years the firm designed yachts for a number of other Canadian boat builders, including CS Yachts, Mirage Yachts, Northern Yachts, Ontario Yachts, Paceship Yachts, and Tanzer Industries,.[3] C&C also designed boats for manufacturers in the US, such as Newport series for Lindsey Plastics (later Capital Yachts) of Harbor City, California,[46] Harpoon for Boston Whaler, and Lancers for Lancer Yacht Corporation, in Irvine, California.[3] In England, Anstey Yachts built the Trapper 27, 28, and 35 (which was a C&C 35). C&C designed several yachts for OY Baltic in Finland and the Benello 37 for Cantiere Benello in Livorno, Italy.[1]
40' Red Jacket (1966) - first balsa cored fiberglass hull (light), won 11 of its 13 race series in 1967, SORC Champion 1968, still winning races.[47][48]
41' Condor (1967) - SORC Champion 1972; first of Redline 41 production Racer/Cruiser, also built as Newport 41[1][49]
40' Manitou (1969) - defended 1969 Canada's Cup over S&S Designed NIAGARA, won 4-0[50][2]
35' Cygnus (1970) - Owned by Roy Hawkinson, has won more Port Huron to Mackinac Races than any other boat in history, both Overall (4 times) and in the C&C 35-1 Class (8 times).[51][52][53][54]
53' Bonaventure V (1970) - Mac races combined trophy 1970, SORC Champ Class A 1971, many, many years of many wins thereafter.[55]
61' Sorcery (1970) - extensively raced, SORC Champion, rolled by a rogue wave in the North Pacific and survived[56]
39' Windquest (1972) - Won many races including the Port Huron to Mackinaw and the SORC.[57]
61' Robon (1972) - first to finish of 180 starters in a heavy upwind Bermuda Race 1972[1]
41' Evergreen (1977) - custom IOR Two-Tonner built 1978 for Don Green of Royal Hamilton Yacht Club, won Canada's Cup back from U.S. in 1978 after an absence of six years[1]
39' Magistri (1982) - Selected to the Canadian Admiral's Cup team, she won the Channel Race overall – the first-ever overall win by a Canadian yacht in an Admiral's Cup event. Her final series placing was sixth in fleet, also a best-ever for Canadian sailors.[58]
The Shark 24 is a Canadian-designed 24 ft sailing yacht which has earned itself a reputation of extraordinary reliability and longevity among sailors both in North America and Central Europe. Having been designed by George Hinterhoeller back in 1959 to cope well even with the harshest conditions found in the Great Lakes region, the vessel has proven to be well suited for extended leisure trips as well as for tough racing.
George Anton Hinterhoeller (1928–1999) was a Canadian boat designer and builder, a significant contributor to the Canadian sailboat industry for almost forty years.
The Nonsuch line of catboats is a series of popular cruising sailboats built between 1978 and the mid-1990s by Hinterhoeller Yachts in St. Catharines, Ontario. They are popular in North America, with over 950 boats built. The Nonsuch class was named after the Nonsuch that was the first trading vessel of Hudson's Bay Company, which in turn was named after the Baroness Nonsuch, a mistress of King Charles II of England.
The Royal Canadian Yacht Club (RCYC) is a private yacht club in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1852, it is one of the world's older and larger yacht clubs. Its summer home is on a trio of islands in the Toronto Islands. Its winter home since 1984 has been a purpose-built clubhouse located at 141 St. George Street in Toronto, which includes facilities for sports and social activities. In 2014, the club had approximately 4700 members, about 450 yachts and a number of dinghies, principally International 14s.
The Redline 41 is a series of sailboat designs, first built in 1967 and that remained in production in 2017. The first two designs were by Cuthbertson & Cassian and the more recent one by Mark Mills.
The C&C Redwing 30, also called the C&C 30 Redwing, Redwing 30 or just the Redwing, is a Canadian sailboat, that was designed by Cuthbertson & Cassian and first built in 1967.
The C&C 37/40 is a Canadian 12.05 metres (39.5 ft) LOA fibreglass monohull sailing yacht, designed in 1988 by Robert W. Ball of Cuthbertson & Cassian as a replacement for the earlier C&C 37 dating from 1981. The C&C 37/40 is a recreational keelboat of moderate displacement, intended as a cruiser/racer or oceangoing racer. The yachts have a masthead sloop rig, with a fin keel and an internally-mounted spade-type rudder. Over 110 of the 37/40 type were built before the Canadian plant closed in 1994. The design is no longer produced.
The Bluejacket 23 is a 23-foot (7.0 m) Canadian trailerable, fibreglass monohull sailboat designed by Cuthbertson & Cassian as a day sailer and club racer and first built in 1967.
The Paceship 23 is a Canadian sailboat, that was designed by Cuthbertson & Cassian and first built in 1969.
The C&C 61 is a Canadian sailboat, that was designed by Cuthbertson & Cassian and first built in 1970.
The C&C 44 and the C&C 44 Custom are a series of Canadian sailboats, that were designed by Robert W. Ball and first built in 1985.
Robert Wilson Ball was a Canadian yacht designer, based in Port Credit, Ontario, and later, New Bedford, Massachusetts. Robert Ball was the chief in-house designer and Vice President of Design at C&C Yachts from 1973 to 1991.
Perry Connolly was a Canadian hotel constructor and yachtsman. Connolly was one of the instigators for George Cuthbertson to form C&C Yachts, whose Red Jacket won the 1968 SORC cup. In 1969 his boat Manitou won the Canada's Cup. Connolly was the director of operations for Canada II, an unsuccessful 1987 America's Cup challenger.
George Harding Cuthbertson (1929–2017) was a founding partner of Cuthbertson & Cassian yacht designers, one of four companies that in 1969 formed C&C Yachts, a Canadian yacht builder that dominated North American sailing in the 1970s and early ‘80s.
George Cassian was a yacht designer and founding partner of Cuthbertson & Cassian yacht designers, one of four companies that in 1969 formed C&C Yachts, a Canadian yacht builder that dominated North American sailing in the 1970s and early 1980s. His was the second “C” in C&C, with his design associate George Cuthbertson, being the first. Cassian would continue as a designer with that company until his untimely death in 1980 at the age of 47.
Erich Bruckmann was a boat builder and founder of Bruckmann Manufacturing, one of four companies that in 1969 formed C&C Yachts, a Canadian yacht builder that dominated North American sailing in the 1970s and early 1980s.
Hinterhoeller Yachts was a Canadian boat builder based in St. Catharines, Ontario. The company specialized in the design and manufacture of fiberglass sailboats.
Mark Ellis is an American-Canadian naval architect, who has designed sixteen production sailboats, along with many custom sailboats and powerboats. He is best known for his Nonsuch series of catboats, the Limestone series of powerboats and Niagara sailboats. In 2003, Dan Spurr described Ellis as "one of Canada's premier yacht designers".
Capital Yachts Corporation, also called Capital Yachts, Inc. was an American boat builder based in Harbor City, California. The company operated as a division of Lindsey Plastics and specialized in the design and manufacture of fiberglass sailboats.
↑ "The Shark 24". International Shark Class Association (ISCA) Website. 2018. Archived from the original on 23 September 2018. Retrieved 8 December 2018.
↑ Robertson, Michael (2010). "Newport 27". Cruising World. Middletown, RI: Bonnier Corporation. Retrieved 15 December 2018.
↑ "Red Jacket". www.cncphotoalbum.com. Retrieved 24 June 2018.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to C&C Yachts.
C&C Yachts Reunion and Conference featuring interviews with members of the C&C Design Group, C&C Production, Sales and Marketing, and a group of yachting industry professionals discussing the legacy of C&C Yachts. Videos from event held in April 2012.
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