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Latitude 38
• October, 2009
COURTESY CLOUDIA
COURTESY CLOUDIA
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went into chartering. By doing this, I figured I could at least control who goes and stays on my boat. (By the way, I'm happy to report that the owner of the boat I did the Ha-Ha on and I have made amends and become good friends.) Anyway, my new boat is Cloudia, a 1920 85-ft LOA Colin Archer design. She's currently at the Driscoll yard in Mission Bay getting a refit. Cloudia is probably one of the last of the big wood hulls to be re-planked. I even had a hard time finding vertical grain planks — and I grew up in the Northwest where my family was in the lumber business. The problem in finding the wood is that the government won't let us harvest the good trees needed for this purpose anymore. But by buying a semi-truck and scrounging from Alaska all It's hard to believe but Capt. the way down to Eugene, Blanchard's other boat is an Islander I managed to get 7,000 34, which he calls "rocket fast." board-feet of Alaskan yellow cedar to redo the entire hull one last time. You don't want to know what it cost for the wood or the fastenings, but I'm pretty sure that I'm stimlulating the U.S. economy more than the government is. My restoration was going to be the whole shebang — planks, deck, machinery — the works. But then I got a fright! The man who was going to plank the boat backed out at the last second. It tur ned out to be a blessing in disguise, because we decided to cold mold the hull instead of replanking it, and it's turning out much better all Timber! That's what's inside big wood boats. the way around. To all but the Colin Archer purists — who live in Norway — Cloudia will still look planked. I sometimes complain about the refit's being an expensive pain, but I just love old wood boats because they have something that the newer ones lack. For instance, I have an Islander 34 that's a rocket ship. While she's a blast and all, Cloudia is just classier in my book. Believe it or not, she's faster, too. Yeah, my big Colin Archer really hauls ass. The trick is stopping her! Work hard, sail free! Captain Thaddeous Blanchard Cloudia, Colin Archer 85 San Diego Thaddeous — Your boat, which has more character than 25 fiberglass boats, would certainly be welcome in the next HaHa. Good luck with the refit — and thanks for all that you're doing for the economy. ⇑⇓DROP OUT, BECOME A BILLIONAIRE We think you made a mistake when you corrected George