 
Trick question: What two things make a yacht designer smile? Honest answer: 1) Going fast, and 2) Going faster.
Designer Tim Jackett, a soft-spoken man with a playful sense of humor and a way of translating design concepts into boats that do what they're meant to do, admits to a healthy obsession with speed. Jackett, now the Chief Operating Officer of Fairport Yachts, builders of the Tartan and C&C lines, as well as the chief designer for both brands, grew up racing in Mentor, Ohio, just a short sail down Lake Erie from C&C Yachts operations in Fairport, and gravitated to the George Hinterhoeller-designed 24-foot Shark, a one-design he describes as "lightweight and bulletproof."
In the 1970s Jackett joined the in-house design team of Tartan Yachts, contributing to projects such as the ever-popular Tartan Ten one-design and designing custom MORC (Midget Ocean Racing Club) racers. by the mid-1980s, Jackett became the chief designer of the Tartan fleet-the 3500, 3700, 4100, 4400, and 4600. Fairport Yachts relaunched the C&C line for the 1999 model year with the 121, 110, and now in 2001, the C&C 99 joins the family.
So what, in a nutshell, is Jackett's design philosophy? He believes in doing what makes good sense, working from his experience and the real-world performance of his designs and the construction methods and materials used in putting them together. But that doesn't mean Jackett restricts his design development to mincing steps; he has the fortitude to commit to a bold stroke, as long as it's been preceded by plenty of careful thought.
For example, in the C&C 99 Jackett has embraced both epoxy construction and Volvo Penta's Saildrive. Widely accepted by European sailors, Jackett points out that the Saildrive's direct engine-to-drive train connection results in reduced noise and vibration, less drag than a conventional shaft-and-strut arrangement, and more thrust (the Saildrive's propeller is 90 degrees to the water flow, maximizing efficiency).
If customers need educating about Saildrive or, for that matter, the thrust of the reborn C&C line, Jackett sees happily to that. After all, he has lots of "this is why it's better" reasons to back up his commitment to change. Jackett's modus operandi at the drawing board (at the computer, we mean) is to incorporate subtle shadings into his bold design strokes.
For example, at deck level the stern of the C&C 99 is wide-very wide. But by designing the right amount of flare and hollow into the topsides aft and augmenting that with a pronounced fullness in volume forward, Jacket achieved a balance of beam and volume that keeps the C&C 99 on its fore-and-aft lines when heeled, defusing the type of bow down, rudder-out behavior seen in many IMS boats. Like a lot of designers, Jackett works from experience, too-not a bad way to go when You consider that even the most sophisticated computer design program has yet to draw a line that it didn't like. The rudder on the C&C 99, for instance, is large, perhaps larger than it strictly needs to be, but Jackett took special pains to end up with a balanced boat, and thus a balanced rudder-and thus the rudder works as a lifting surface.
The keel fin, poured and machined to the designer's exacting tolerances by Mars Metal, features a NASA-inspired bulb and a double-duty feature that's typically Jackett: special attention has been given to the keel attachment area to strengthen it and reduce interface turbulence.
Another of Jackett's favorite things is to sail his boats in the same world in which his customers sail. "It just makes sense to me that, out with Your family on a nice sunny day in 8 knots of wind, You ought to be able to put up the spinnaker, pull the apparent wind forward, and get to where You're going ahead of the other guys." Jackett did exactly that on a recent weekend with the C&C 99-smoking up to and around a group of 40-foot-plus performance-cruising boats: "Now that's what I call cruising." Jackett, who has three kids, may also be thinking ahead. "Your fourteen-year-old son or daughter, who's going to take over the driving from You, should feel like he or she is steering something fun when they get on the wheel." It's safe to assume that, when computer-modeling the 99, minivans and middling steps were the last thing on Tim Jackett's mind.
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