Rob, thank you; that is a really good synopsis; I, for one, had no knowledge
of the workings of he museum or the issue with the location; (nice people those
City developers); please know that all of the effort and labor that you, and
all of the Museum people have invested is a real contribution to sailing and to
your fellow C&C owners; there is nothing remotely close to the Marine Museum in
our part of the country...; I have purchased drawings for all of my boats from
the Museum and received nothing but courteous and helpful service!
Richard
s.v Bushmark4: 1985 C&C 37 CB; Ohio River, Mile 596;
Richard N. Bush Law Offices
2950 Breckenridge Lane, Suite Nine
Louisville, Kentucky 40220-1462
502-584-7255
-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Mazza via CnC-List <cnc-list@cnc-list.com>
To: Stus-List <cnc-list@cnc-list.com>; JohnKelly Cuthbertson
<j...@motiondesignslimited.com>
Cc: Robert Mazza <robertlma...@gmail.com>
Sent: Sat, Jan 2, 2021 12:27 pm
Subject: Stus-List Re: C&C drawings at Kingston Maritime Museum
Hi Everyone,
Perhaps now is a good time for a quick update on the Marine Museum of the Great
Lakes at Kingston and the drawing collections. As JohnKelly and others have
been discussing, the museum holds the drawing collections of George
Cuthbertson, from the early drawings of his youth to 1973 when George handed
over design responsibilities to Bob Ball and the C&C Design Group, of which I
was a member from 1969 to 1985. (I have been a member of the Board of Directors
of the Marine Museum since 2012). These drawings were graciously donated to the
museum by George himself. George also sat on the Board of Directors of the
museum for a number of years. In the early 2000s Tim Jacket generously donated
a large portion of the C&C drawings dating from 1973 to 1996 to the Marine
Museum. These drawings had been acquired by Tim and Tartan Marine when Tartan
purchased the assets of C&C Yachts in 1996. A couple of years after Tim's
initial donation of drawings, I dropped in on Tim and Tartan to further explore
their dusty mezzanine to look for more drawings, and found about 30 rolls that
Tim was unable to deliver in his previous trip north. These, incidentally,
included the Evergreen and Mega drawings, among others. Although I catalogued
these drawings prior to delivering them to the museum, subsequent events may
not have allowed all of them to be entered into the computer system. I still
have about 10 rolls of drawings that I picked up from Tartan, and about 15
rolls that I received from Rob MacLachlan at South Shore before he closed his
operation. Unfortunately, time constraints and challenges at the Marine Museum
have prevented me from cataloguing these drawings (as I think JohnKelly pointed
out, cataloguing drawings is an exceedingly tedious undertaking!) In addition
to the Cuthbertson and C&C drawing collections, the museum also holds George
Hinterhoeller's drawings, graciously donated to the museum by his son Richard
Hinterhoeller. The other sailing collection the museum holds are blueprints,
photos and drawings by the early 20th Century Canadian yacht designer TBF
Benson. Of Course, the museum also holds about 40,000 ships plans, including
the entire archives of the Montreal naval architecture firm German and Milne,
as well as the archives of Canada Steamship Lines and all the shipyards with
which they were associated. Needless to say, the total drawing collections of
the museum are massive! So that's the background on the drawing collection.
With regard to the Marine Museum itself, I'm sure everyone is aware that the
museum was evicted from their waterfront property (that property included the
historic dry-dock) in 2016 when the Canadian Federal government of the day sold
our property to a private developer. That individual took advantage of a
provision in our lease agreement with the government to insist we vacate the
property in 120 days. The City of Kingston eventually provided storage space
for the archives (including the drawings) and artifacts, as well as a small
"store front" office location for the museum in Portsmouth Olympic Harbour,
site of the 1976 Olympic sailing events. Our fortunes increased significantly
last year when a generous benefactor donated enough money to the museum to
allow us to buy our former property (including the dry-dock) back from the
developer who had done nothing with the property over that three year period.
Our plan is to repair the damage done by three years of vandalism and neglect,
and at least move our offices back on the property this spring (Covid
permitting). In the meantime the museum's sailing and C&C collections were
further enhanced last year with the bequest of the legendary Red Jacket to the
Marine Museum by the late Peter Milligan. In addition the Museum has agreed to
accept a 1949 Greavette Int'l 14' Dinghy and a 1965 McCutheon built Kirby III
Int'l Fourteen. Both are in immaculate condition. There is a long term plan to
expand and enlarge the museum over the next 5 years, as well as the possibility
of acquiring another Museum Ship to occupy the dry-dock. In the meantime, the
museum is in the process of upgrading their website
(https://www.marmuseum.ca/). Our goal is to provide a virtual (and eventually a
physical) home for the Canadian Sailing Hall of Fame, (which is managed by the
Marine Museum, working with Sail Canada), initiate a web based Register of
Historic Canadian Sailing Craft, and make the Cuthbertson, C&C Yachts, and
Hinterhoeller drawings more easily accessible online. However, these upgrades
to the website are being undertaken with talented volunteer labour, so will
take time. When I recently asked Michelle Clarabut, the Museum's Program and
Education Manager (https://www.marmuseum.ca/about/our-staff), for an update on
the website, Michelle replied:
What I can say at this point is that Mike is working hard on the Ship Lists
section and the transfer of the remainder of the Museum's online database (main
one) from Queen's (University) in-house as is. Once that is complete and Ship
Lists are up and working, we'll be turning to the main database search
functionality and aesthetic, the end game - to ultimately be able to provide
visual thumbnails of drawings etc and the ability for the public to order
copies. This should then help significantly with searches. This is going to be
a long process when coupled with the fact that I also have other priorities,
but I wanted to share that it is in progress. Mike has been extremely patient
through it all and is working very hard to set up with a much improved search
function which should resolve the issues and frustrations that I believe are
expressed.
So, things are moving in a very positive direction with the Marine Museum and
the drawing collections, all-be-it, sometimes slower than we would like.
However, I cannot overestimate the Marine Museum's commitment to the legacy of
George Cuthbertson and C&C Yachts. The Museum organized the C&C Yachts Reunion
and Conference in 2012, and mounted the New Age of Sail exhibit in 2015. The
latter focussed on the huge growth in sailing and boatbuilding in Canada with
the transition from wood to fiberglass in the 1960s and '70s. It was at the
Gala Dinner celebrating the opening of that exhibit that the Honourary
Co-Curators of this exhibit, George Cuthbertson and Bruce Kirby, were inducted
into the Canadian Sailing Hall of Fame. A reworked version of this exhibit,
that will obviously include Cuthbertson & Cassian, Red Jacket, and the creation
of C&C Yachts, will be the first exhibit in the reworked museum galleries when
we move back into our former site.
I apologize for the length of this email, but hopefully it provides an update
on the Cuthbertson and C&C Yachts Collections at the Marine Museum of the Great
Lakes at Kingston.
And I have to join the chorus of "thank yous" to Stu for this extraordinary
online venue allowing communication between C&C owners and sailors.
Rob Mazza
On Wed, Dec 30, 2020 at 9:35 AM JohnKelly Cuthbertson via CnC-List
<cnc-list@cnc-list.com> wrote:
I actually use 4 different databasesMineExcel Museum database 1Excel Museum
database 2Queens university Database of Museum
Sorry, that link was for the Queens one only
I’ll see if I. An find an online link fir the museums internal database but it
might be down at the moment since they are in transition
I can send you a link to my personal database ( so incomplete :-) if you wish
JK
Thanks to all of the subscribers that contributed to the list to help with the
costs involved. If you want to show your support to the list - use PayPal to
send contribution -- https://www.paypal.me/stumurray Thanks - Stu
Thanks to all of the subscribers that contributed to the list to help with the
costs involved. If you want to show your support to the list - use PayPal to
send contribution -- https://www.paypal.me/stumurray Thanks - Stu
