Ryan, The exterior of a boat building facility is rarely indicative of the quality of the work that goes on inside. Many Florida boat building facilities don’t even have walls on the exteriors of the buildings (partially due to the heat, but I think they feel that every time a hurricane comes through, they’re going to lose the building so why bother with walls…). It is also hard to keep a facility looking “pretty” if you have to store hull and deck molds outside and do wet layup of fiberglass indoors…
The boat building industry has suffered greatly during the upswings and downturns of our economic climate over the past 50 years, from the booms of the dawning of the fiberglass era, to the luxury tax disaster of the 1980’s and the Great Recession of the last decade. The number of domestic North American boat manufacturers has been cut by 75% since 1980, both in the US and Canada. If you want a good insight on the industry as a whole, not just sailboat OEMs but boat builders successful and not so successful, read Heart of Glass by Daniel Spurr. Dan has done quite a bit of research, especially on C&C Yachts rise and fall, and he presents a good bit of information on how boatbuilding in North America developed into the iconic industry of today. It is very rough to get the right mix of design innovation, management and financial skills, brand and customer loyalty, and a well-trained skilled workforce all at the same time and keep the team together long enough to withstand the ups and downs of the world economic issues. I’m always amused when a person tells me that sailboat builders will have a good year when oil and gas prices go up. Little do they know that the same oil is used to make the resins holding the boats together and the Dacron that goes into building the sails and ropes. When the price of oil goes up, EVERYTHING costs more and only the very wealthy can afford luxury goods such as new sailing and motor yachts. Chuck Gilchrest Half Magic 1975 25 Mk1 S/V Orion (for now) 1983 35 Landfall Padanaram, MA From: CnC-List [mailto:cnc-list-boun...@cnc-list.com] On Behalf Of Ryan Doyle via CnC-List Sent: Monday, February 1, 2016 2:45 PM To: cnc-list@cnc-list.com Cc: Ryan Doyle <ryanpdo...@gmail.com> Subject: Stus-List Old C&C factories on Google Street View Hey everyone, Just figured I'd share these. I was doing a bit of research into my boat's history and did a Google Street view search for the site of the old Niagara-On-The-Lake C&C factory where many of our boats were built. This appears to be it. A little sad looking these days. The official address was 526 Regent Street, Niagara-On-The-Lake, ON. https://www.google.com/maps/@43.2477103,-79.0798583,3a,75y,46.89h,80.32t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sWXyUsyI08paWB6abrM7vTQ!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo1.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DWXyUsyI08paWB6abrM7vTQ%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D69.186577%26pitch%3D0!7i13312!8i6656!6m1!1e1 And this appears to be the Rhode Island plant where some of the later C&C's were built. https://www.google.com/maps/@41.5370326,-71.2796595,3a,37.5y,238.05h,82.17t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sQtO33RcgRe2XAgGkFTZWzA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 Ryan S/V Nobody's Bargain 1976 C&C 30 MK I Hull #377
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