12 PROFESSIONAL BOATBUILDERROVINGSPreeminent and in uential yacht designer and builder
George Cuthbertson died last October at his home in
Toronto, Canada. In 1969 he formed C&C Yachts, a part-
nership that included his design partner “Little George”
Cassian; George Hinterhoeller, the Austrian émigré and
master builder who took control of the company’s produc-
tion models; Bruckmann Manufacturing, which specialized
in custom raceboats; and Belleville Marine, which took on
some production models. Among several yards, the com-
pany boasted more than 100,000 sq (9,294m^2 ) of shopC&C’s “Big George” Cuthbertson Dead at 88
space with ve production lines and 180 employees, turning
out 480 boats a year. Facilities in Rhode Island and Germany
were added. A thorough history, “C&C— en and Now,”
can be found in PBB No. 92. e company went public. Sales
were terri c—$9 million annually. en it collapsed.
Cuthbertson’s sailboat designs were mostly lightweight
n-keel racer/cruisers with crisp, contemporary lines that
had wide appeal, making C&C Yachts a dominant force in
North America. e L-shaped aluminum toerail, perforated
to receive fairlead snatch blocks, became an easily identi -
able signature of C&C. e company also was ahead of the
fashion curve in abolishing nearly all wood from the exte-
rior, making the boats easier to maintain than teak-laden
competitors.
Cuthbertson graduated from the University of Toronto in
engineering and began building boats in 1953. His big break
in design was the 54' (16.5m) yawl Inishfree, which was
launched two years later. George Cassian, a designer from
the automobile industry, joined him in 1961, helping in the
development of a number of notable designs including
Galatia, Vanadis, Inferno, and ermopylae—constructed of
strip-planked wood.
e ascendance of Cuthbertson
in the world of yacht design was
assured with the 40' (12.2m) Red
Jacket, ostensibly the rst sailboat
built with a balsa-cored FRP hull.
Constructed by Erich Bruck-
mann, she won her division in the
prestigious 1967 SORC (Southern
Ocean Racing Conference), and
won overall in 1968—a di cult
feat. ree years later, his designs
won three of the ve divisions,
including overall—a record never
accomplished before or since.
In 2012 I had the privilege of
visiting with the retired Cuthbert-
son in conjunction with a C&C
Yachts reunion in Burlington,
Ontario (see PBB No. 138, page
11). We talked about his design
philosophy, in particular two
C&C trademarks of yacht append-
ages. e apparent swept-back
keel with highly angled leading
edge was not swept-back at all,
he told me. Rather, he’d simply
removed a triangular-shaped
piece of deadwood on the trailing
edge that gave it the angled
CHRISTOPHER PRATT, “BIG BOAT,” OIL ON CANVAS. COLLECTION OF THE ART GALLERY OF NOVA SCOTIA. REPRODUCED WITH THE ARTIST’S PERMISSION. appearance. And the swept-backCOURTESY GEORGE CUTHBERTSON
Above—George Cassian, left, joined George
Cuthbertson, center, in 1961 to form the
C&C design rm. At right is a customer, Perry
Connolly, the successful yachtsman who skip-
pered Red Jacket to back-to-back victories in
the SORC. Right—Red Jacket, the 40' (12.2m)
sloop that won class in the 1967 SORC and
overall in the 1968 running of the event,
cemented Cuthbertson’s reputation as a hot-
shot designer. Red Jacket is also thought to
be the rst sailboat built with a balsa-cored
FRP hull. Below—Another C&C customer was
Canadian artist Christopher Pratt, who painted
this beguiling portrait of a C&C 61 (18.6m)
partially exposed in the building hall. Its shy
underbody is representative of the thousands
of other models designed in the 1970s and ’80s, many by Rob Ball, who took over as chief
designer in 1973.COURTESY ROB MAZZARovings171-ADFinal.indd 12 12/29/17 3:36 PM