I am pleased to report that my little wooden boat, formerly called Lolita, has a new home in the San Francisco Bay area and a new name that I think fits perfectly. Her new owner, Mariellen Stern has given her fresh varnish and a bunch of other upgrades and shes now ready to race. Here are some photos from her days in Newport Beach:
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Cinnamon Girl as she looked in 2007.
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| Cinnamon Girl sports traditional lines above the waterline combined with a fast bottom. |
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| With her deep fin keel and spade rudder, Cinnamon Girl is deceptively quick. |
I designed this boat way back in 1978 for a client that wanted a traditional looking boat for cold-molded construction. I could not bring myself to draw a full keel on it so we compromised with a shallow-ish fin keel and skeg-mounted rudder. Twenty years later I found her in a warehouse in Signal Hill in a sad state of disrepair and bought her on the spot. I brought her back to my shop and rebuilt her in my spare time. In doing so I deepened the keel and put a new spade rudder on her. A few years later my plans changed and I put her in storage while I focused on other projects and went cruising.
Fast forward to 2013, it was time to either refit her again or find a new home for her. Fortunately, last April Mariellen came into her life. She had known this boat many years ago and loves it as much as I have over the years. After several years in storage the varnish on the hull and cockpit was in rough shape, the bottom paint was gone and there were a few other issues that needed attention. I had always sailed the boat in southern California where the winds are relatively light and only raced it a few times so it was very simply rigged, but for sailing and racing in the San Francisco bay area, we thought some additions were necessary. These included a new 100% jib set on a roller furler, rigid vang and improved reefing system among others. Here are some photos of the work in progress:
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| Lolita survived the road trip from Costa Mesa to Richmond, CA |
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| Topsides are prepped for new finish . |
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| Several coats of Interlux Perfection are applied. The hull is made of cold molded fir and mahogany. |
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| Once the topsides were finished, fresh bottom paint was applied. |
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| With work on the hull completed, the boat was relaunched. The next step was to refinish the cockpit. |
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| It was no small job to refinish the cockpit. Notice the old style Barlow winches. |
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Mariellen stands proudly with her new Cinnamon Girl
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| Cinnamon Girl in her element. |
