Good Old Boat welcomes aboard a new contributing editor
Issue 85 : Jul/Aug 2012
If you own a C&C yacht, Rob Mazza probably had a hand in its construction, design, or engineering. If you own a boat with balsa or foam core in the hull or deck, Rob Mazza can tell you all about its structural properties. And if you’ve ever raced an International 14 dinghy, you might have competed against him.
Born in 1947 in Toronto, Ontario, Rob earned a degree in mechanical engineering from Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, and, in 1972, a master’s degree in naval architecture and marine engineering from the University of Michigan.
It seems he was always around boats; he was brought up on Toronto Island, in the heart of Toronto Harbour, and a member of Queen City Yacht Club at an early age. Summers, he worked in a chandlery and a sail loft. In 1968, he got a summer job at the C&C Yachts Custom Shop in Oakville, run by Erich Bruckmann, one of the four original partners who founded C&C in 1969 (see “The History of C&C Yachts,” Good Old Boat September 2002). Many of the boats from the Custom Shop were to become legends, among them, the Canada’s Cup winner Manitou, True North, and Red Jacket, the first balsa-cored boat and winner of the SORC in 1968.
At the fastest end of the sport, while at Queen City Yacht Club, he became enamored with the International 14 dinghy; after moving to Hamilton, he designed one, built three in plywood with friends, and sold plans for it. Ontario Yachts built his 14, Mazza III, in fiberglass and carbon fiber.
Other than taking time off to earn his master’s degree, Rob continued on at C&C in various capacities until 1985. Once out of the shop, he worked as a draftsman and junior designer, eventually becoming a senior designer and project manager, with a specialty in structures, masts, rigging, and deck layouts. Part of the job was racing C&Cs in many of the world’s top events, including the SORC, Admirals Cup in England, the Onion Patch, Bermuda Race, Canada’s Cup, the Halifax Race, and even a “bloody cold” Trans Superior. During his tenure at Niagara-on-the-Lake, he also contributed articles to Sail, Sailing, and Canadian Yachting.
A year before C&C fell into receivership, Rob left to join former C&C design colleague Mark Ellis at his office in Bronte, Ontario. There he worked on Ellis’ well-known Nonsuch line of freestanding-rig catboats and the Niagara sloops, all built by Hinterhoeller Yachts. Other clients included Aloha Yachts and Wiggers Custom Yachts, as well as several powerboat companies.
Sunshine and warm weather called in the form of the chief designer’s job at Hunter Marine in Alachua, Florida. For three years, from 1992 to 1995, Rob commuted between Florida and his family home in Ontario. During this time, he says he made the transition from drawing with pencil on paper to computer-aided design (CAD).
Tom Johannsen, a pioneer in the development and application of structural core materials to the boating industry, lured Rob away in 1996 and made him North American Sales Manager for ATC Chemicals, which introduced Corecell linear-foam cores and promoted polyester bonding compounds. In 2003, Rob was hired as Global Marine Market Manager by Baltek, the leading supplier of end-grain balsa and foam core materials. Having worked with balsa from its earliest marine applications at C&C Yachts, and later at Hinterhoeller Yachts, Rob saw the job as a sufficiently good fit for him to move his family to New Jersey. He became an expert in “all things core related” he says, writing about the topic for Professional BoatBuilder and the Westlawn Journal, as well as speaking at major events such as METS (Marine Equipment Trade Show) in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and IBEX (International Boatbuilders’ Exhibition). Traveling throughout North America, Europe, and Asia, he got what he calls a “real world view of the boating industry.”
But time and travel takes its toll. Last year, Rob and family returned to Ontario, and this past March he retired from Baltek. The 1970 C&C Corvette 31, Trillium IV, he bought in 1996 and which accompanied him to Florida and New Jersey, during a period of continual maintenance and rebuild (see “An Affordable A4 Rejuvenation,” January 2011), is in home waters now too. Rob is again doing some design and survey work and, and in his spare time, finishing a 15-foot Whitehall dinghy. He’s also become obsessed with researching the history of Canadian yachts and yachting. Exceptionally qualified, he is taking over from Ted Brewer the boat comparison page that follows the feature-boat article in each issue of Good Old Boat. Welcome aboard, Rob!
Dan Spurr is Good Old Boat’s research editor. He is also editor-at-large with Professional Boatbuilder and the author of seven books.
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
