CY Inbox Special: New Caledonia

New Caledonia

June 10, 2019

We received an interesting letter from far away. We’d like to share it:

My name is Alexandrine GOVAN, mother of a 5 years old girl and I found your contact on internet. First of all, sorry for my English, French is my mother language and I do my best with Google Translate help.

When we bought Shenanigans in 2013 to live there, the only information we have is: build in 1980 Canada, previous pavilion USA, a number C4662.

Today I am sick (rheumatoid arthritis) and our boat too (osmosis, rain water inlet…) but our project is to repair and adapt the boat to our abilities in order to continue to live there, race for fun within our lagoon (Wednesday regattas, Groupama Race, Bluescope Race, Noumea – Port Vila) and write the story of our boat.

Could you please help us to find :

1- products or ways to treat the hull while respecting environment?

2- pictures, plans, diagrams of its constructions and its races?

In our dreams we travel around the world to visit Canada where it was build.

Thank you for your time, and we hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely,

Alexandrine & Melody

New Caledonia Hull TestTo get an answer for Alexandrine we went to the person who knows the C&C story, Rob Mazza.

Hi John,

You can tell Alexandrine that the plans for the C&C 36 (for which I was Project Manager, by the way) can be obtained from the C&C Collection at the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes at Kingston. See website. Ask her to contact the Marine Museum Manager, Doug Cowie, at manager@marmuseum.ca;.

I expect the plans have already been digitized, so she can receive them as attachments to an email, for a modest fee.

She can also find information on the 36 at Sailboatdata.com, as well as the C&C Photo Album website.

Hope that helps. Alexandrine’s question on ways to “treat the hull” from what I expect is osmosis blistering leads to a pretty broad discussion. Certainly epoxy coating would be of benefit, but only if the hull has been stripped of bottom paint and allowed to dry out substantially. However, I am far from an expert in that regard.

You do receive some interesting emails from exotic locals. I had to use Google Maps to find New Caledonia. North of New Zealand and east of Australia. A long way for a C&C 36 to get to!

Rob.

Hi John,

Thank you, thanks to Robert too, that’s great news. See attached photos of my boat and a test on the hull done by a local company ‘Neptune’.

Yes New Caledonia is far from Canada and San Francisco. The letters nc of San Francisco are still there to form nc of New Caledonia.

I think about 9 months to 1 year to repear and adapt our boat as I need to go to hospital and work. A big challenge.

Sincerely,

Alexandrine

Related Articles

  • Boat IQ for Guests

    August 13, 2026 August is Boat Guest Month but its also an opportunity for you to appreciate that boating does not come naturally to most people. Has this ever happened?  You pull into the dock to pick up your guests and your crew tosses a line off the bow. It falls at Guest4’s feet and…

  • POTW: Shocking!

    August 13, 2026 Shane Griffin caught this Photo of the Week lightning strike perfectly. “The photo was taken at Marina Del Rey in Ramara (Orillia)  facing 332° NW down the channel that leads to Mc Phee bay from my slip.  “I boat mainly on Lake Simcoe but travel the Trent annually in some direction north…

  • Escape

    down below – they’ll never find me! July 23, 2026 Last Sunday was an unusual day. The weather forecast was iffy and had been unstable for days due to a heat wave stacked with an air quality alert so I had no guests invited and no particular plans to be on the water.  Then, when…


Bennington 22 MSB

By Andy Adams

If you’ve already had firsthand experience with a pontoon, you will easily understand the appeal of the Bennington 22 MSB. But if you haven’t, let’s start by reviewing a few of the reasons why pontoon boats have become top sellers in markets across North America.

Pontoon boats began in the early 1950s as basically four steel drums lashed to a frame. They were not unlike the log rafts of ancient cultures and not much more sophisticated at first.

Read More


Destinations

The Best of Two Worlds

By Mathew Channer

Interior British Columbia might not be as famous for recreational boating as Canada’s Great Lakes, yet it is no less a world-class boat­ing destination. The mountains offer their own flavour of marine adventure with their series of long, deep ribbon lakes, and there is perhaps no area that embodies this more uniquely than the iconic Okanagan basin in southern B.C. One could be forgiven for assuming this valley was purpose-built for nautical fun, with a few delightful perks thrown in to make the area entirely irresistible (wine-tasting, anyone?).

Read More