C&C 99

2006 November 5
By Robert H. Perry

Racer-cruiserr

Tim Jacket shows us two distinct design styles with his work as both president of the company and designer of record for the C&C and Tartan lines. These two brands are quite different, and I applaud his effort at maintaining the aesthetic elements that distinguished the original C&Cs. I still think C&C gave us some of the very best looking production boats. I can't walk by an old C&C 39 without marveling at its good looks. The new C&C 99 is also very good looking, and according to sailing reports, is an exciting performer. "C&C" stands for Cuthbertson and Cassian, the Canadian design team that started the original company.

This is a very beamy hull with an L/B of 3.01. When an L/B gets close to 3 you have a beamy boat. This beam is accentuated by being carried dinghylike to the transom. In plan view this is a very wedge-shaped boat. While we could argue the performance aspects of this design feature there is no doubt that it affords the designer the best shape for the interior layout and cockpit layout, while resulting in a lot of wetted surface and weight aft. The D/L is 168.

Draft is either 6 feet, 6 inches or 5 feet, 3 inches depending on your choice of keel. The deep fin shows an extended trailing edge fillet, which I would assume is to facilitate the mating surface at the hull for both keel models. The keel leading edge is near vertical. The rudder shows a shape that lacks any significant taper but has plenty of area. Big rudders are nice.

The midsection has 13.8 degrees of deadrise and a firm turn to the bilge for good initial stability. While the overall styling is right out of the old C&C design handbook Tim's approach to hull shapes is entirely his own.

Boy! When you look at this interior you have to do a double take considering that this boat is only 32 feet, 6 inches long. It wasn't too long ago when 40-footers had layouts like this. There is nothing missing in this layout. The aft double berth is a little on the tight side and some of the other features show some "compression," but it's an amazingly complete layout for a 32-foot boat. Tim likes angles in his layouts. I applaud the use of a saildrive for the auxiliary.

The SA/D of this masthead rig design is 20.38. The spreaders are slightly swept. The mainsail has enough roach on the drawings to overlap the backstay by about 8 inches. Sailmakers will inevitably go even farther than that.

The deck design is all facets and angles producing a very chiselled look that I find appealing. The cockpit is not long, but it is wide thanks to that extremely broad transom. The cockpit is open to the swim step, but there is a hinged piece that drops into place to close it off and provide a helm seat. The traveler is right in front of the binnacle, and I like that. The large-diameter wheel will make steering the 99 fun.

This boat reminds me of the racer-cruisers of the early '70s. The speed was there, combined with comfort. It's a very sensible approach. This would be a great family boat if you were the type of family that enjoyed some local races between cruises.