Happy Puppy is a C&C 115, hull number 29, launched in October 2006. We first saw the model at the Annapolis boat show in October 2005 and were pleasantly surprised to finally find what looked like a dual purpose boat. With most boats either too “cruise-oriented (aka floating condominium) to satisfy my performance needs, or too “racy” (i.e. no interior) to suit Alexandra’s comfort needs, this boat seemed to get the balance pretty well at first glance. And the deck fittings and basic gear seemed tone of decent quality so at least that wouldn’t have to be massively upgraded to get the boat working right. So after some soul searching culminating in a test-sail with Geoff Atkins in July 2006, we were convinced, and an order was placed.
While the concept has proven solid, there have been a number of teething problems that have required some serious time and financial commitment on our part to make right by our standards. By end of 2011 we consider that the boat is in good working order, with most of the major elements resolved. There are still some elements (i.e. bottom epoxy job) that remain to be done, but for the most part the remaining changes are for personal preference, not fundamental to the boat working well. We remain exceedingly happy with the balance provided by the concept of the boat, but less so with the execution. It has become very obvious to us that the boat has been designed to a price point, and that many of the choices were dictated by the marketing folks, not sailors. Some of these shortcomings (weight, for example) are pretty much built-in and we will have to live with. Many others either have been resolved with some (sometimes a lot) of expense and time, or will be resolved in the near future.
This section of the site shares some of the lessons we have learned from this experience. These are of course personal opinion, but hopefully these thoughts will be useful to others, and of course if you have found a better way of dealing with any of these, we would love to hear about it.