In
my ongoing history of George H. Cuthbertson and C&C
Yachts
Red
Jacket
Cuthbertson
and Cassian had been designing together for approximately
6 years when in 1965 Perry Connolly invited George H.
Cuthbertson out to a Maple Leafs hockey game in Toronto.
During the break between the second and third period,
Perry had decided that 4 years with his CN35 Carousel was
enough and he asked GHC to design “the meanest, hungriest
40-footer afloat.”
Project
#65-13 Red Jacket was designed to the Cruising Club of
America ( CCA ) rules of the day with an eye to her racing
on the Great Lakes. GHC after years of being the Royal
Canadian Yacht Club measurer new what had gone fast in the
past but he was looking forward. Reducing weight fore and
aft helped reduce her pitching in seas, part of this was
eliminating the stateroom forward of the mast, a radical
idea, and the area becoming the head and sail locker. He
added a bowsprit to increase the fore triangle and from
tank testing they went with a cantilevered spade rudder
which was unusual for the time.
Oh
yes, not only was she fiberglass, she also had a balsa
core hull. The first sailing yacht to be built with this
technique. , one layer of end grain balsa squares
sandwiched between two layers of fiberglass. Common now a
day but state of the art in 1965. Diagonal bands of solid
fiberglass were also introduced to relieve some stresses
expected on the boat, builder stresses on using the new
material and designer stresses for an unproven technique.
½” balsa was used below the waterline and ¾ above but with
a hull thickness of a uniform 1”
Launched
in May 1966, her first year of racing she won 11 of 13
races. Defeating Inferno from the Chicago Yacht Club in
the Prince of Wales race, Jim McHugh who was defending his
title suggested to Perry that he should take Red Jacket to
the Southern Ocean Racing Conference ( SORC ). 1967 SORC,
Red Jacket skippered by Connolly, proved a great success
until a fatal tactical mistake in the Miami to Nassau Race
led to her losing the top position. In 1968 she returned
and finished first overall, the first non-American boat to
do that and that a Canadian yacht has never repeated. Red
Jacket returned a third time in 1969 and finished 12th,
her new fixed prop ( for the IOR rating bump ) and light
winds did her no favour.
George
H. Cuthbertson never was finished with Red Jacket. She
received a bustle in 1968, new keel in 1969, what he
considers an unsuccessful update in 1979 and in 1984 her
keel, rudder and rig were reworked again. The 1984 rework
was due to Paul Phelan adding a teak deck, thus making her
top heavy and slow. This teak deck has since been removed.
One
story from the time is as Erich Bruchmann was changing her
keel in his shop, the keel fell when they undid the last
bolt, crashing in to the cradle. This started Red Jacket
capsizing on to the concrete floor which would have ended
her but she was quickly stabilized and everyone took a
breath.
Perry
Connolly, by 1971 was in financial trouble and had to let
Red Jacket go. She was sold to Florida for a few years
before Norm Walsh returned RJ back to Canada. Peter Bowman
had her then Paul Phelan owned her for many years, next
his son before she passed to Peter Milligan. Peter
realizing the history he had acquired vowed to take care
of her and he did. He restored her and raced her
competitively for many years and committed to donate her
to the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes in Kingston
Ontario after his death. Due to Covid restrictions she
still sits in Port Credit but it is hoped she will sailed
to Kingston this summer of 2022 and will stay in the water
there available for charters from the MMOTGL.
If
you'd like to read other articles I've posted on the
history of GHC, C&C yachts and a few reproduction of
promotional items, go to www.candcyachts.com
