Now, I'm not looking to hurt anyone's feelings...

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Jonathan Levine
Hot Shot
Posts: 43
Joined: August 30th, 2019, 12:17 pm
Boat Make/Model: SC19, SC20
Location: Southern Alberta

Now, I'm not looking to hurt anyone's feelings...

Post by Jonathan Levine »

But this has been bugging me for years. I've known about the SuperCat family since the early 80s, when I made the move to cats and subscribed to Multihulls Magazine. The Boston Whaler ads knocked me out - big, expensive, colourful, aggressive, and with the most hilarious, over-the-top copy ever. Those ads worked - I so wanted one. You could never get away with writing that stuff in these woke times (some of it is archived at thebeachcats - if you've never read it, you really must). And the branding - the Impact font used in the ads and on (some of?) the hulls (note to typography geeks: Impact as designed doesn't include italics) was sharp, clear, and unambiguous - as badass as the boats.

But over the decades I never saw one of the boats - there just aren't any in this part of the world - and they faded from my memory, only to be eventually rekindled through Dave Farmer, since we've been going down and sailing Flathead for years. So I dug around a little and learned the history, but found the branding confusing. "SC" is straightforward enough, but what does "ARC" stand for? Aquarius Racing Catamaran? Aquarius Roberts Catamaran? And the logos: The old "Super" on the sail is soft and mushy (compared to the H, P, n, etc.), and the modern "ARSC" (?) is just busy and confusing, too many ideas jammed into a small space at the expense of clarity and simplicity. I still don't know what it's supposed to stand for. Maybe it's just the OCD in me (correction: That's "CDO" - alphabetical), but when I get into something new one of the things I like to sort out is the etymology of new terms.

That's all. Just venting. Strikes me as a bit of a shame that for most of its life, such a great design has suffered from such poor branding.
Kevin Keller
Professional
Posts: 362
Joined: September 24th, 2006, 2:56 am
Boat Make/Model: SC-20, ARC22
Location: Honolulu

Re: Now, I'm not looking to hurt anyone's feelings...

Post by Kevin Keller »

ARC is Aquarius Robert’s Catamaran I’m pretty sure.
Rhiannon
Novice
Posts: 12
Joined: October 24th, 2010, 10:56 pm
Boat Make/Model: SC-20
Location: North Florida

Re: Now, I'm not looking to hurt anyone's feelings...

Post by Rhiannon »

If Bill was around, he would have answered you promptly. As I recall, ARC stands for Aquarius Roberts Catamarans.
Of course, he then would go into stories and explanations that we all miss.
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