c & C 37+/40 Any opinions or experience?

[JulieMac]

My partner and I just discovered a what appears to be a very clean one with a nice layout. Use of the boat would be lot's of day sails in South Florida, and trips to the Bahamas. This one has a 6' draft.

Does anyone have an opinion on this model or C&C in general? It's not a heavy duty boat at 15,000 lbs displacement and has a cored hull.

I'll sit back and listen for your opinions now.

[robert sailor]

A friend bought one several years ago and I drove it for a couple of seasons of local racing. Built by Tartan with epoxy hull, carbon fibre mast/boom and spin pole and trick sails it was an excellent boat to sail. Quick and responsive and very well built it should make an excellent cruiser/racer. Tartan has been building cored hulls since the 70's and knows how to do a proper job so it wouldn't be very high on my worry list but of course you'd do a proper survey no matter who built it, right? It was well appointed and nicely finished and is quite pretty to the eye.

[deluxe68]

The boat, as a light cruiser/racer, sounds perfect for your planned sailing.

[Drumroll30]

I must correct Robert Sailor, the C&C 37+ was not built by Tartan, it was Canadian built in the Niagara on the Lake plant between 1989 and 1997. The Tartan built C&C's began with the 110 model in 1999 and later the 99 and 115 models. The 37+ is a great cruiser racer with a good turn of speed. For South Florida and Bahamas it would be a fine boat, not designed for ocean crossings though.

[robert sailor]

Mmmm, OK I stand corrected. The OP did not mention the year and my buddies boat was often referred to as a 37/40 even though it was in fact a 115. I'm not as crazy about the later C&C built in Canada.

[rickrohwer]

We own a 37+ 1990. We bought her, "Paikea", in April and spent the early spring straightening out some issues we knew existed and few new ones. We are on our second trip to the San Juans/Gulf Islands this summer and enjoying the boat immensely. She sails very well and came with a lot of gear. Paikea does draw almost 8 ft, and requires 52+ feet of clearance. This does limit some places we have gone in the past.
I have had several boats with full to modified full keels that were very stable. The fin keel is more sensitive and easily rounded up. She also comes about much more nimbly.
She came with in mast furling which I am not a fan of. Nice in light air, but I still hate to rely on it furling in a blow. Just finished working on the furling line so I hope the issue is resolved. I haven't had an opportunity to set the light air sails but I think I'll be impressed. For some reason we never sail downwind!! it's been one of those years.
Pretty happy with this boat. Let me know if you have some questions.

[rickrohwer]

Originally Posted by rickrohwer

We own a 37+ 1990. We bought her, "Paikea", in April and spent the early spring straightening out some issues we knew existed and few new ones. We are on our second trip to the San Juans/Gulf Islands this summer and enjoying the boat immensely. She sails very well and came with a lot of gear. Paikea does draw almost 8 ft, and requires 52+ feet of clearance. This does limit some places we have gone in the past.
I have had several boats with full to modified full keels that were very stable. The fin keel is more sensitive and easily rounded up. She also comes about much more nimbly.
She came with in mast furling which I am not a fan of. Nice in light air, but I still hate to rely on it furling in a blow. Just finished working on the furling line so I hope the issue is resolved. I haven't had an opportunity to set the light air sails but I think I'll be impressed. For some reason we never sail downwind!! it's been one of those years.
Pretty happy with this boat. Let me know if you have some questions.

We put a tape up the mast a few weeks ago and it was 50ft from deck to halyard top. We figured about 4 ft to the water and few feet for antennae and wind instruments. It meant opting out of my favorite pass day before yesterday as it lists the bridge clearance at 58ft. Maybe when it isn't foggy and raining one day I'll give it another try.
We cross the Straight of Juan De Fuca tomorrow for the 6th time in two months. It has beat us up a couple of times so we are hoping for a smooth crossing.

[lifeofreilly57]

I owned a C&C 38 for many years, it had a custom keel and some other modifications to keep it competitive done by the previous owner so it had some of the traits of the 37+, but the 37+ was a faster more developed boat.
Mine had an inner forestay added with a strut run to the hull, both the strut and inner forestay were removable. It was used to run a storm sail on in rough conditions, although I only needed it 4 times in 10 years it was a very good modification to the sail plan.
C&C's were built to be light and responsive as cruiser racers and so carry quite a bit of sail area for the displacement, that one was 14,700lbs with no gear or water, more like 16,500lbs in cruising trim. Because of this you will tend to reef earlier than in a heavier displacement boat. The cruising main had one more set of reef points in it and with that and the storm sail on the inner forestay it handled dicey conditions rather well with the added benefit of moving quite well in light air. I have raced it with full main and 150 in 25 kts with a 9 man crew but would never do that short handed, it can take it but wouldn't be prudent.
Having a 100 as well as a 150 would be a good idea, you don't loose much with the 100 when the breeze is over 10 knots and it's easier to handle in a puff.
It's not a cruising boat though so it requires more attention in heavy conditions but for what your looking to do with it the boat should be a good fit. It's a very responsive boat with great tactile feedback and is very rewarding to sail in the majority of conditions you'll be using it for.
Check for water intrusion in the deck where any hardware is mounted and especially at the chainplates, it's a cored deck and water in the core can be an issue, if it's only a small amount limited to a local through deck area, no problem, it can be dealt with. It all depends on how well the previous owner kept at it.
On mine I eliminated the chainplate through deck issue by removing the chainplates, removing some core from the area around the hole and then filling it with west system, then routed the hole for the chainplates back out. Once done it was much easier to seal and ended any chance of water intrusion there.
Overall build quality was good but like any older boat it depends on how it was taken care of. I hope it works out for you, I have many fond memories of mine.

[rickrohwer]

Just met a fellow C&c37+ owner in Sidney, BC who rushed over to see what our boat was like. He was absolutely supportive of the boat and assured us that the hull layup is bulletproof and substantially stronger than similar production boats of the same period. He hit a log in a wave trough at 10 knots that the yard said would have sunk a lot of similar boats. He showed us some very clever changes that he had made to his boat.
His side windows were changed out from original and he said it was very expensive. He had also found a replacement hatch for the ocean 70Lewmar from Australia. He had a drastically different windlass that required some movement of the windlass base prior to use.
I like the sail fitted on the baby stay idea. I may give that a shot.
We had a great day today in 10-12 knots apparent on a reach in very smooth conditions. The boat sails very well. I got the mainsail furling under control and feel a lot more comfortable with it's use.
I am fighting some gremlins in the charging system.

[lifeofreilly57]

Check the grounding loop for the motor and batteries, wiring harness ground lugs, etc.
If it's an intermittent issue that's usually where you'll find the problem.
The C&C's in those years had pretty simple electrical systems, usually an alternator works or it doesn't, same goes for the voltage regulator.
Boats of that vintage did not use tinned marine wiring.
The second year I owned mine I replaced the original fuse panel with a breaker panel, rewired the boat, it's easier to pull all new wire than to try to fix the existing.

[lifeofreilly57]

Fixing the wiring and adding Garhauer adjustable genoa cars (and mainsheet traveler) were the most cost effective and functional mods I made to that boat.
It made the boat utterly dependable and sail trim quite easy to adjust.

[lifeofreilly57]

"I like the sail fitted on the baby stay idea. I may give that a shot." Quote:

The staysail and storm sail was mounted on a removable inner forestay, not the baby stay, that wouldn't work as well since it wasn't really made for it.
The inner forestay that was added had a mount that was deck mounted but went through the coach roof to a strut which was run to the hull structure for reinforcement. The strut was also removable since it went through the vberth, when not being used it stayed stored, it was easy to attach and was quite handy the couple times I needed it.