Richard,

I've been giving Rob some time to answer, since he was more involved in the
conceptual side of the design than I was. However, with regard to the
longevity of the C&C product, one conversation I had with Butch Ulmer and
Howie McMichael several years ago over drinks at the Larchmount Yacht Club
comes to mind. Both, of course, had been heavily involved in the sales and
sails of C&C product, especially on Long Island Sound. I asked them
specifically what it was they thought differentiated a C&C from other
similar product of the period? Without hesitation and in unison they both
said *"quality"*! They went on to elaborate that by "quality" they meant
quality throughout the whole organization, from design, to building,
through sales and marketing, right up to the Board Room. They
remembered dealing with people at all levels of the company who cared about
the product and the customer, in both the Custom Shop and in both
production plants. With that level of devotion it would have been hard not
to build a good product. Of course, because the product was so well
designed and built it would last forever, which automatically defied the
concept of "planned obsolescence".

With regard to the C&C 37 specifically, I remember that her design was
heavily influenced by Big George wanting to steer the design office away
from IOR oriented designs, and to a more "cruiser/racer" concept on which
the company was originally founded. I recently had a look at the C&C 37
Design Book that resides at the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes at
Kingston, and noted that while I actually wrote the original design brief
on the boat,for some reason I actually had very little to do with her
design.

I'm not sure if that answered your question. If not, perhaps Rob could
elaborate further. The boats were just simply well designed and well built.
Of course, that is not to say that after 40 years or so of hard use,
some don't require and deserve a little TLC.

Rob

On Sun, Jun 27, 2021 at 7:28 PM Neil Andersen via CnC-List <
[email protected]> wrote:

> Don’t forget the 32 😉.
>
> Neil Andersen
> Rock Hall, MD 21661
> 484-354-8800
> ------------------------------
> *From:* Richard Bush via CnC-List <[email protected]>
> *Sent:* Sunday, June 27, 2021 1:43 PM
>
> I have been racing on Wednesday nights this year after a hiatus from
> racing for about 15-20 years; this is beer can racing, not the balls to the
> wall ocean stuff, I am racing my 1985 C&C 37, (cruising sails,135 jib,
> bimini, dodger, centerboard, dirty bottom, the list goes on). but I must
> say it has really been fun; One of the biggest surprises is that this boat
> is not only competitive, but we are winning races..; on light air nights
> was walk away from the fleet!
>
> So, my question to Rob Ball and Rob Mazza and any of the other individuals
> who go back to the time these boats were conceived and produced...did you
> have any inkling that they would still be racing and competitive 35-40
> years into the
>
> I know from the comments on other boats, both here and on Facebook, that
> other owners are also having success on the race course, whether its a 29,
> 30, 33, 35 or 40, or more.
>
> Thanks to all of the subscribers that contributed to the list to help with
> the costs involved.  If you want to show your support to the list - use
> PayPal to send contribution --  https://www.paypal.me/stumurray Thanks -
> Stu
> Thanks to all of the subscribers that contributed to the list to help with
> the costs involved.  If you want to show your support to the list - use
> PayPal to send contribution --   https://www.paypal.me/stumurray  Thanks
> - Stu
Thanks to all of the subscribers that contributed to the list to help with the 
costs involved.  If you want to show your support to the list - use PayPal to 
send contribution --   https://www.paypal.me/stumurray  Thanks - Stu

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