Best of luck Will.
cheers,
Graham Collins
Secret Plans
C&C 35-III #11
On 2013-11-07 4:11 PM, Will Harris wrote:
Hi Group,
I thought maybe I'd chime in on this C&C history thread.
Dunes and I both go way, way back with C&C. We grew up in and around
Youngstown which is right across the river from Niagara-on-the-Lake.
Our clubs are almost like one club, divided by a border. We grew up
racing and sailing with and against the Hinterhollers, Brimsmeads and
all the C&C guys.
My personal history actually pre-dates C&C by a fair bit. When we
bought our Shark, George didn't have an office per se, you went and
had dinner with the Hinterhoellers. Our families used to meet up for
a few days most summers cruising our Sharks in the Thousand Islands.
Richard and I were about the same age and Barbara and my sister were
about the same age. Gabrielle was practically a grown-up.. she was
probably 12 when I was 9...
Long story short, I knew George and his family and I'm pretty sure he
would approve of the 30! Two main reasons: First, it is really easy
to forget just how radical the Shark was in the day. Now, we're
pretty used to 24 foot boats planing.... in 1962 that just did not
happen...except for Sharks!
Second- George is also pretty famous for telling a client who wanted
standing headroom in a 30 footer, "It is better to cut off your
legs". He was a no BS kinda guy.
I follow this list and it's pretty fun. Sometimes I think that ya'll
forget that the C&Cs that are now serving as great cruising boats we
NOT cruising boats when they were new. C&C's bread and butter was
performance boats. They would go and win the SORC, They would build
the Canadian Admiral's Cup team and the string of Canada's Cup boats
they did were freaking amazing. People would buy the production boats
and go race them IOR, or in Ton classes. They were hot boats!
Our Redline 41 is very true to the spirit of her ancestor. I grew up
racing on the mighty Pivot III, one of the original Redlines. I still
see her every week when I go Mumm30 sailing. They Awlgripped her (
still red ) and removed the pulpits and lifelines. She looks awesome,
kinda metre boatish, very, very classic. That was a boat that won the
SORC over-all. ( Not Pivot, Condor). Also, she was the first
boat to really carry the C&C flag. (the boat company, not the design
office)
At this point in her life, she's a cruiser, but when she was new, she
was as crazy racy as a HPR boat is now.
As far as our Redline looking like a MIlls boat.... she IS a Mills
boat! I would think that the C&C list more than anyone would
understand that designers develop a look! Go to Andy's office and if
you can't pick out the C&C models hanging on his wall, you need to
turn in your C&C guy card!
The Redline is going to be great for people who still want what C&C
used to offer, a world-class race boat with a yacht quality interior.
You can race her, cruise her and entertain your friends aboard her.
There are a few different interiors to choose from and some of the
boats will be racier and others cruisier. There is a shallower draft
option, but it will still draw a couple inches more than Andy's C&C
40. But just a couple. If i know Andy, a 6 inch difference in draft
would not change his thinking on where he could go and where he
couldn't go!
Modern is not all bad. The new Redline is going to be MUCH easier for
a husband and wife team to actually sail than ANY previous C&C biggish
boat. Non overlapping jib, main halyard to a powered winch and a top
down furler on a sprit-flown genniker will make this a boat you will
sail more and motor less.
On to the 30..
Back in the day, the 30 probably would have come from the Custom
Shop. They did a bunch of pretty 'out there' boats. They had the
advantage of having ton classes to race in. Say what you like about
IOR, but it DID make it pretty easy to build race boats have some
boats to race against. Today, the goal pretty much has to be
one-design. We don't have a Half-Ton Cup to go win. ( although, this
boat will be about as fast as 2 tonners used to be!) The pure C&C
race boats of the past; Magistri, Evergreen, Spirit ( C&C 38
one-tonner) or the half tonners, didn't pretend to be cruisers either!
The 30 is NOT a sportsboat. It is conceived as an entry-level grand
prix boat. You can race the short and medium distance races on her,
smoke your Wednesday night fleet and just have a blast. Someone
compared it to the MummFarr 30 and you nailed it. We are the builder
for the Farr30 and in my opinion, it is the best sailboat ever. She
was the entry level grand-prix boat of 1996. It's almost 2014 and time
for a new best boat ever.
I really do think that George H would heartily approve of the 30! He
and my Dad are probably up on Fiddler's Green boasting about how
they'd cruise that thing.... ( they would too, but they were slightly
nuts)
Someone else thought that the C&C30 was too racy for their needs and
was considering an Alerion 28. Excellent choice! We build those too.
There are sooooo many C&Cs and soooo many different owners that it is
going to be hard to match up with what C&C means to all of you! Our
plan is to take the essence of what made C&C great and carry it
forward. We grew up with the brand and the people who created the
brand were some of our childhood heroes. We could have named our new
line of performance racers and racer cruisers anything we wanted. It
was a ton of extra work and money to be able to carry on the C&C name
and tradition, but we felt it was worth it.
Why? Because that history means a lot to us.
Will
PS - Somebody doesn't like the new logo?!?!? Really. Come on....the
flag is flying again!
PSS - I don't care how depressed you get, we are NOT bringing back the
aluminum toerails. Hiking on them for my entire childhood stunted my
growth!
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