By Steve Killing
As I was reading the report of the phenomenal efforts to bring the mold for the CS 30 over to Canada, I wondered what the mold for a new Canadian boat was doing in England anyway. Now I have the answer. In their search for a designer for their new boat, CS received many recommendations of the young, vibrant Tony Castro, formerly with Ron Holland's design office. Now on his own and designing very successful racers and cruisers, he was eagerly seeking new business. As CS puts it, there was "instant rapport" when he came to discuss the project with them. They signed him up. Having had good results before with an English firm specializing in marine molds, CS felt it was natural for the 30 to be tooled up in England as well, under the supervision of Castro. And so the logical beginning to the less than ideal ending of air freighting molds across the Atlantic. (See Sightings, Canadian Yachting, March 1984.) The mandate to Castro from the powers-that-be at CS was to forget the handicapping rules. CS builds safe, comfortable cruising boats that perform well. No weird IOR or MORC stuff.
If you take the present CS line of boats in one hand and Tony Castro's various designs in the other and clap your hands, you get the new 30. Castro's for CS and added substantially to the available space aft. The cabin house has a family resemblance to the 33 and the 36 but, as the designer puts it, is "a little more streamlined." Everyone involved with the project is excited about the cockpit. Lots of angles and slopes and nice round corners for snoozing in. If you find all the salesmen asleep in the cockpit at the next boat show, you'll know it worked. When I examine a new boat, I never worry about stating the obvious- like "Look at the size of that berth!" The quarter berth is more than generous. Unfortunately, I don't have access to the view that really tells the story.
How much room is there under the cockpit sole for your feet, what with steering sheaves and all? No one at the shop could give me a dimension, but they say it is just fine. I guess I can't argue with that. The head is identical in layout to the 33. You begin to wonder, since so much of the layout is the same as the 33, how they have managed to squeeze it all in. Much credit goes to Castro and the production team. The sail area and displacement figures put the 30 near the upper end of the performance range for racer/ cruisers. I can hardly say that I don't like the concept, since it is very close in philosophy to some of my own designs.
Boat number one rolled off the assembly line in March. According to CS, more than 100 have already been sold and they will be building them as fast as necessary to keep up with the demand. Initial production will be about three boats a week. Builders love this kind of market enthusiasm, but at the same time are wary of the dangers. Trying to produce too many boats too quickly can be the downfall of a boat builder. However, knowing CS's history, I am sure the products that come off their line will continue to be among the best in the industry. Sounds like a success story to me.
Contact CS Yachts at 79 Bramsteele Rd., Brampton, Ont. L6W 3K6; (416) 457-6713.

Originally published in Canadian Yachting’s June 1984 issue.

Specifications:
Sail
Length......................30ft
Beam.......................10ft 3in
Draft.........................5ft 6in
Weight......................8,000lbs
Ballast......................3,440lbs
Sail Area...................463ft²

Steve Killing is an independent Yacht Designer based Midland, Ontario. He was the assistant designer of Canada 1, Canada’s America’s Cup Challenger.