Any C&C 30 MkI Owners Have Any Experience Off-Shore With Them?

[elliebell]

I've seen mixed reviews on the net from it being a great boat to a difficult boat to handle, so any input coming from experience would be great! I'm sure how it is rigged would make a world of difference, so any rigging suggestions are welcome as well. Thanks!

[S/V Alchemy]

Any pinched end IOR-influenced design is going to be touchy downwind, and the rudder on a Mk. I is a little antiquated. I own a 1973 Viking 33, also a C&C design, and the two boats and the C&C 34 are really quite similar.

The problem is not the rigging, but the whole way it ties together with that old, often frozen balsa core deck. You have to bed and inspect and rebed and rebolt the chain plates, and probably have to recore the deck and install backing plates to beef up or refresh the original arrangements. Obviously, if the rigging is 35 years old and from freshwater, it goes into the "spares" category, along with all tangs and pins, etc.

But the fixed portlights are weak, and the hatches are sub-par for offshore. I won't even touch the likely Atomic 4 engine and the ten-gallon gas tank and the unlooped ventlines and the 1970s Romex 10 gauge house wiring on the AC side.

You already likely know about that.

Don't get me wrong: the C&C 30 is a great inshore, lake and coastal boat. They still win club-level races. But they are not in my view adequate or safe for offshore. Not with 1/4 inch plexi in weak frames and tired rubber in the Atkins and Hoyle forehatch and smoked Lexan dropboards and Barlow winches.

You want to stay within sight of land with all that in a 35 year old 30 footer. You could beef it up to make it safe, but you could also buy a more appropriate boat for offshore.

[casual]

Still sail my 36 1978 vintage to the Bahamas have seen many adverse conditions never concerned with structure.Would not want to cross an ocean but have heard of a sister ship that circumnavigated years ago,the hulls are strong the deck's light and she doesn't like it dead down wind a reach is great.Never had any coring,or rig problem I do maintain it well.Fast boat and lt's of fun to sail