If you own an older C&C, here’s where to get technical support and advice
Issue 17 : Mar/Apr 2001
Maintaining, repairing, or restoring an older boat, especially one that is no longer in production, can become a real problem when owners can’t get access to specific technical information or the right parts.
Owners of older Cuthbertson & Cassian (C&C) yachts are fortunate to have available the invaluable resources of Ontario-based South Shore Yachts and its owners, Rob MacLachlan and Steve Kiemele. If your C&C was built before 1998, you can call South Shore Yachts, just as you might call the manufacturer’s customer service line.
Not long ago, Fairport Marine Company began building boats under the C&C name, but these new models are different from the original Cuthbertson & Cassian-designed boats, and Fairport doesn’t offer much technical or service support to the owners of the earlier C&Cs. Instead, they refer these calls to South Shore Yachts for parts and service.
Rob has been connected with C&C Yachts in one form or another since the 1970s. He first worked on the C&C production line when he was a student. Later, after majoring in marine maintenance in college, he worked for a C&C dealer and then went on to work for the company in 1984 as manager of special events, service, and warranties. He founded South Shore Yachts in 1989, first as a yacht brokerage and eventually as a way to supply customer service to C&C sailboat owners. He assisted the company as it changed hands and eventually provided this service as an independent agent.
Steve worked for the company as a service representative in 1994 and continued in similar roles with South Shore Yachts when C&C shut its doors. Rob says, “He is a great problem-solver, and we do a lot of that at South Shore Yachts.”
Like many boatbuilders in the late 1980s, C&C had its share of problems. After a number of changes in ownership, the company was placed in receivership and taken over by a mutual trust in 1990. In 1991, Rob started offering service work for C&C boatowners and selling a select group of used boats.
Production restarted
In 1993, when the company was purchased by a Hong Kong investor, and production of C&C Yachts started again, the new owners contracted with South Shore Yachts to handle sales. Later, when these owners wanted to discontinue their service department, Rob convinced them to contract with South Shore Yachts to provide the service work for C&C owners. As part of this arrangement, South Shore Yachts became C&C’s customer-service division and took over all the technical records, drawings, patterns, molds, and tooling for parts such as rudders, portlights, toerails, and rubrails.
South Shore Yachts continued to act as the customer-service arm of C&C until 1996, when a series of events that included a troubled economy, financial problems, and a fire brought an end to the production of these sailboats once again.
An interesting side note concerning Rob’s association with C&C at that time was the role he played as their representative in the South Pacific. In 1995, Rob moved to New Zealand, where his father lives, and set about the task of selling C&Cs “down under.” Unfortunately, after Rob had set up their first dealership in New Zealand and sold the first boat, C&C ceased production. So that effort was abandoned, and Rob moved back to Canada to rejoin Steve who was overseeing the operation of South Shore Yachts in his absence.
Together, they continued to take care of the C&C service work until early in 1998, when the Hong Kong owners sold the C&C name and moved the hull molds to Fairport’s Tartan facility in Ohio. With the factory closed, South Shore Yachts began servicing and selling parts for older C&C boats independently.
South Shore Yachts is located in Niagara-On-The-Lake, Ontario, a small, but thriving, boatbuilding community on the south shore of the lake, where the early C&C yachts were built. It’s not a particularly large operation. It consists of a yard where boats are stored and worked on, a workshop, a 12-foot by 20-foot office, and a small, but complete, ship’s store. The company’s relatively small size allows Rob and Steve to handle most of the work themselves. They have either the tooling or the patterns to allow them to make almost any small wood or metal part that C&C made for their boats originally. They will do custom fabrication and casting duplications for any older C&C boat (or any boat for that matter). Rob and Steve do much of the fabrication themselves, including the molding of the rudders.
Custom-made parts
Many replacement parts are stocked or documented in the company’s drawing files. Things like the old C&C handrails and hatch covers are custom made. They are even able to reproduce parts for which no documentation exists. Some of the standard parts available to customers are bow castings and weldments, cleats, mast collars, portlight gaskets, and Plexiglas windows. Items such as stanchions and bow pulpits are subcontracted. Rob explained that all the different stanchion bases are still available, and there are quite a few of them as they are specific to the toerail detail of different models.
In addition to making and selling parts for older C&Cs, Rob and Steve offer other services to their customers. These include technical information and advice for do-it-yourselfers and service work for those needing rigging, parts, and system installation, deck hardware layout and design, interior and exterior redesign, retrofits, and commissioning. “What we can do for our customers,” Rob says, “is take the hassle out of repairs, upgrades, retrofits, and maintenance tasks and get them back on the water fast.”
Rigging work is an important part of South Shore Yachts’ business. As the Navtec representative for all of eastern Canada, they run a full-service rigging shop. They do running rigging, rod rigging, wire rigging, and swaging. They also install, repair, and maintain hydraulic tensioners. Because the equipment is portable, Rob says they often travel to customers’ boats to do the work, as long as it’s within a reasonable distance.
For owners who wish to update their boats’ interiors, South Shore Yachts works in close association with interior designers Asquith & VanderMass. Marco VanderMass originally worked as a designer for C&C and knows the boats intimately. Customers get a detailed, computerized, three-dimensional design and working drawings that allow them to visualize and make decisions about the final look and atmosphere of the interior. The detailed working drawings list materials required and how to put them together, allowing the customer or local yard to do the work. Asquith & VanderMass can take care of ordering all the materials and supervise the entire process. Rob advises that it really doesn’t pay do to this sort of an interior upgrade on boats of less than 40 feet, though. “The owner just wouldn’t be able to recover the cost on a smaller boat,” he points out.
Original files
The family of C&Cs built before 1998 includes large boats such as custom 48- and 62-footers as well as the ubiquitous 25s, 27s, 30s, and 33s of the 1970s era, along with the newer one-design racing SR21s. “We have customers located all over the world,” Rob says. He gets calls or email messages every day from owners looking for any and all kinds of information, advice, technical manuals, or parts. In addition to supplying technical information and parts, they talk customers through problems and even make recommendations as to yards where the owners can have work done.
One thing C&C owners are particularly privileged to have access to through South Shore Yachts is the original “build file” for each boat. This file documents the building of any particular boat back as far as 1972. Owners can buy the package that includes detailed information as to who built the boat, a list of the original options, and even the original factory kit list showing what parts went into the boat. This is a one-time opportunity though, “as this is the original file, and once it is sold it can’t be duplicated and is no longer available to anyone else,” Rob notes.
South Shore Yachts also offers advice on specific models for potential buyers of C&C sailboats. For $35 (Canadian) Rob and Steve will put together a package that includes copies of the old brochures (or the originals if they are available), the equipment list, designer comments, and boat reviews — if there were any.
South Shore Yachts also brokers a select few C&C yachts. These are boats that are “pristine . . . only boats that I would personally want to buy myself,” says Rob. They also offer to help locate a particular model C&C for a customer. According to Rob, used C&Cs in good shape are in demand right now. “People are looking for good old boats, but they don’t want a piece of junk because it’s a lot of work to redo,” he says. He notes that a few years ago, used-boat buyers were afraid of older boats. They wouldn’t consider boats older than 1980 or even 1986. More recently, he sees people searching for the older boats because they are looking for value. He has been getting more calls lately from people looking for some of the older models, like the C&C Corvettes or Redline 41s. “People have always liked C&Cs . . . they seem to have maintained their value well,” he says.
Classic half-tonner
Rob himself recently purchased a 1974 C&C Half-Ton racing sloop, a boat he admired for many, many years. He purchased the custom 30-footer from the original owner, a C&C dealer in Maryland. Rob says he had been “bugging” this dealer for a long time to sell him the boat. He considers the boat to be a “classic C&C:” fast, incredibly nice to sail, and with a style that is still contemporary by today’s standards. “Most people who see the boat can’t believe it was built back in the 1970s,” he says. Rob lights up when he talks about this boat. His passion for C&Cs and sailing are unmistakable. His other boat is a C&C SR21 Max One-Design Class sport boat that he bought new when they first came out in 1994. Rob races the boat extensively and is active in promoting the class through the SR21 Owners Association.
If you’re looking for a boat in need of some work (a fixer-upper), South Shore Yacht’s design and construction services make refitting and upgrading an older sailboat viable. While Rob and Steve don’t offer full restoration work, Rob will help a customer find the right yard to do the work. “We don’t get into work like fiberglassing and painting here. We have a great yard nearby, Murry’s Boat Repair, that does fiberglass work and painting better than anybody else I’ve seen, and I’ve seen a lot,” he says. “We work well together. He only works in the fiberglass and painting area. We send that kind of business to him, and when he needs a mast put up, some rigging or instruments installed, he calls us.”
While their original manufacturer is no longer available to them, C&C owners are fortunate to have South Shore Yachts to provide the services and information they need to keep their boats sailing now and into the years ahead.
Dennis, his wife, Dyane, and faithful boatdog, Cincinatti (sic – look, the dog can’t spell, so it’s OK), spend their summers cruising the Great Lakes aboard their Catalina 28, Whisper.
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
