Hi Everyone, Perhaps now is a good time for a quick update on the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes at Kingston and the drawing collections. As JohnKelly and others have been discussing, the museum holds the drawing collections of George Cuthbertson, from the early drawings of his youth to 1973 when George handed over design responsibilities to Bob Ball and the C&C Design Group, of which I was a member from 1969 to 1985. (I have been a member of the Board of Directors of the Marine Museum since 2012). These drawings were graciously donated to the museum by George himself. George also sat on the Board of Directors of the museum for a number of years. In the early 2000s Tim Jacket generously donated a large portion of the C&C drawings dating from 1973 to 1996 to the Marine Museum. These drawings had been acquired by Tim and Tartan Marine when Tartan purchased the assets of C&C Yachts in 1996. A couple of years after Tim's initial donation of drawings, I dropped in on Tim and Tartan to further explore their dusty mezzanine to look for more drawings, and found about 30 rolls that Tim was unable to deliver in his previous trip north. These, incidentally, included the *Evergreen *and Mega drawings, among others. Although I catalogued these drawings prior to delivering them to the museum, subsequent events may not have allowed all of them to be entered into the computer system. I still have about 10 rolls of drawings that I picked up from Tartan, and about 15 rolls that I received from Rob MacLachlan at South Shore before he closed his operation. Unfortunately, time constraints and challenges at the Marine Museum have prevented me from cataloguing these drawings (as I think JohnKelly pointed out, cataloguing drawings is an exceedingly tedious undertaking!) In addition to the Cuthbertson and C&C drawing collections, the museum also holds George Hinterhoeller's drawings, graciously donated to the museum by his son Richard Hinterhoeller. The other sailing collection the museum holds are blueprints, photos and drawings by the early 20th Century Canadian yacht designer TBF Benson. Of Course, the museum also holds about 40,000 ships plans, including the entire archives of the Montreal naval architecture firm German and Milne, as well as the archives of Canada Steamship Lines and all the shipyards with which they were associated. Needless to say, the total drawing collections of the museum are massive! So that's the background on the drawing collection.
With regard to the Marine Museum itself, I'm sure everyone is aware that the museum was evicted from their waterfront property (that property included the historic dry-dock) in 2016 when the Canadian Federal government of the day sold our property to a private developer. That individual took advantage of a provision in our lease agreement with the government to insist we vacate the property in 120 days. The City of Kingston eventually provided storage space for the archives (including the drawings) and artifacts, as well as a small "store front" office location for the museum in Portsmouth Olympic Harbour, site of the 1976 Olympic sailing events. Our fortunes increased significantly last year when a generous benefactor donated enough money to the museum to allow us to buy our former property (including the dry-dock) back from the developer who had done nothing with the property over that three year period. Our plan is to repair the damage done by three years of vandalism and neglect, and at least move our offices back on the property this spring (Covid permitting). In the meantime the museum's sailing and C&C collections were further enhanced last year with the bequest of the legendary *Red Jacket * to the Marine Museum by the late Peter Milligan. In addition the Museum has agreed to accept a 1949 Greavette Int'l 14' Dinghy and a 1965 McCutheon built Kirby III Int'l Fourteen. Both are in immaculate condition. There is a long term plan to expand and enlarge the museum over the next 5 years, as well as the possibility of acquiring another Museum Ship to occupy the dry-dock. In the meantime, the museum is in the process of upgrading their website ( https://www.marmuseum.ca/). Our goal is to provide a virtual (and eventually a physical) home for the Canadian Sailing Hall of Fame, (which is managed by the Marine Museum, working with Sail Canada), initiate a web based Register of Historic Canadian Sailing Craft, and make the Cuthbertson, C&C Yachts, and Hinterhoeller drawings more easily accessible online. However, these upgrades to the website are being undertaken with talented volunteer labour, so will take time. When I recently asked Michelle Clarabut, the Museum's Program and Education Manager ( https://www.marmuseum.ca/about/our-staff), for an update on the website, Michelle replied: *What I can say at this point is that Mike is working hard on the Ship Lists section and the transfer of the remainder of the Museum's online database (main one) from Queen's (University) in-house as is. Once that is complete and Ship Lists are up and working, we'll be turning to the main database search functionality and aesthetic, the end game - to ultimately be able to provide visual thumbnails of drawings etc and the ability for the public to order copies. This should then help significantly with searches. This is going to be a long process when coupled with the fact that I also have other priorities, but I wanted to share that it is in progress. Mike has been extremely patient through it all and is working very hard to set up with a much improved search function which should resolve the issues and frustrations that I believe are expressed. * So, things are moving in a very positive direction with the Marine Museum and the drawing collections, all-be-it, sometimes slower than we would like. However, I cannot overestimate the Marine Museum's commitment to the legacy of George Cuthbertson and C&C Yachts. The Museum organized the C&C Yachts Reunion and Conference in 2012, and mounted the New Age of Sail exhibit in 2015. The latter focussed on the huge growth in sailing and boatbuilding in Canada with the transition from wood to fiberglass in the 1960s and '70s. It was at the Gala Dinner celebrating the opening of that exhibit that the Honourary Co-Curators of this exhibit, George Cuthbertson and Bruce Kirby, were inducted into the Canadian Sailing Hall of Fame. A reworked version of this exhibit, that will obviously include Cuthbertson & Cassian, *Red Jacket*, and the creation of C&C Yachts, will be the first exhibit in the reworked museum galleries when we move back into our former site. I apologize for the length of this email, but hopefully it provides an update on the Cuthbertson and C&C Yachts Collections at the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes at Kingston. And I have to join the chorus of "thank yous" to Stu for this extraordinary online venue allowing communication between C&C owners and sailors. Rob Mazza On Wed, Dec 30, 2020 at 9:35 AM JohnKelly Cuthbertson via CnC-List < cnc-list@cnc-list.com> wrote: > I actually use 4 different databases > Mine > Excel Museum database 1 > Excel Museum database 2 > Queens university Database of Museum > > Sorry, that link was for the Queens one only > > I’ll see if I. An find an online link fir the museums internal database > but it might be down at the moment since they are in transition > > I can send you a link to my personal database ( so incomplete :-) if you > wish > > JK > > >
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