The Marine Museum of the Great Lakes is hosting a C&C Conference to highlight the C&C Collection of drawings and artifacts housed in the Museum archives. This Conference follows directly on the heels of the C&C Reunion taking place at RHYC on the previous evening. Therefore, this will be the largest assembly of past C&C employees and associated boating industry individuals ever gathered in one place. 

Taking full advantage of that, the conference, open to the sailing public, will consist of four consecutive panel discussions focusing on Design, Production, Sales and Marketing, and the Legacy of C&C Yachts. Each panel in turn will be answering questions posed by the moderator, Maurice Smith, Curator Emeritus of the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes in Kingston. The first two of these have already been described in previous e-newsletters.

The first Panel, focusing on Design, will consist primarily of the C&C Designers captured in the photograph of the 1973 design office- George Cuthbertson, Rob Ball, Steve Killing, Ruth Coombes/Smith, Rob Mazza, with special guest George Hazen. 

The second Panel of the day – Production – will focus on the builders, located in, at any one time, three plants in North America, and one in Europe, with C&C product being built by other builders as well. This panel will consist of Henri Adriaanse, Paul Anstey, Chuck Bentley, Barry Carroll, Gert Tiel, Herman Verstegan, and Murray White.

The third Panel will take the stage after lunch on Sunday, April 15th. This Panel will be made up of the Sales and Marketing people of C&C yachts, in its various incarnations. 

This panel will consist of:

Peter Blacklock – Production Manager for Belleville Marine, established the C&C "Factory Store" in Chicago,
Don Finkle – Early C&C Dealer with RCR Yachts out of Rochester, NY, celebrating 40 years in the business this year
Ted Lane – Production Manager at Paceship Yachts, Sales and Marketing at C&C  Yachts and Ontario Yachts
Len Ramsey – VP Marketing C&C Yachts
Michael Spicer – Sales and Marketing at C&C and established the C&C Rhode Island Production Facility

Needless to say, we are pleased to have such an in depth panel to field questions concerning what made the C&C dual purpose product so successful in an always evolving market, with increased competition from pure racing boats, one designs, and pure cruising boats, not to mention power boats. While these questions will be posed to the panel by Maurice Smith, further follow up and additional questions will be welcomed from the floor, should time permit. 

This will indeed be a once in a lifetime event, not to be missed by anyone with interest in Canadian yacht design and building. For more information, please go to the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes website under "Upcoming events", or call 613 542-2261 to register. The registration fee of $65 covers a continental breakfast in the morning, coffee breaks where you can meet and question the panel members, lunch,  and a one-year membership to the Marine Museum. All monies raised will go the the preservation of the C&C Collection at the Museum. Please join us at the Royal Hamilton Yacht Club on Sunday, April 15th for this historic event.