C&C Yachts
On July 1st, we celebrate Canada Day, the anniversary marking our country’s confederation back in 1867. We thought it would be nice to recognize one of the few classes on our Sailing Vessel Class Insignia poster that is very Canadian.
Founded by George Cuthbertson and later bringing in George Cassian (the C and C of C&C Yachts) in 1969, this yacht design and manufacturing company went on to produce beloved keelboats for over 40 years. As most of these origin stories go, the beginnings were quite humble. Cuthbertson and Cassian were both engineers with Cassian recently unemployed from the Canadian aircraft company Avro (a tragic Canadian success story). With a deep knowledge of aircraft design and construction they applied this to yacht design. Innovations like cored hulls, mass production of fiberglass sailboats, innovative factory setups for efficient manufacture, and exotic materials like Uranium ballast in the keel and Cobalt steel rigging. Further, the company also fostered the development of other important sailing designers and sailors like Hans Fogh, Steve Killing, and Robert Ball.
The adage of, “race on Sunday, sell on Monday,” holds true for C&C Yachts. The design and success of ‘Red Jacket’ in the SORC (Southern Ocean Racing Conference) in 1967 and 1968 kicked off interest in the company and it was cemented as they designed and built every Canada’s Cup boat from 1969 to 1978. At their height they ended up supplying 40% of the Canadian market and 20% US market.
C&C is now essentially defunct after trading ownership multiple times, and with each change slowly losing its bearing. However, C&C Yachts has a strong following and the build quality of these keelboats means many of them are still enjoyed and raced to this day.
We encourage you to read more below. Happy Canada Day!
https://sailboatdata.com/builder/cc-yachts