CRUISING - VOYAGES OF SUGAR BLUES

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"SUGAR BLUES"

by Harry and Mary Abbott

September 17, 1989, was not one of my best days. The wind outside was a constant 140 knots, a barge was coming through the starboard float, and, inside, I was up to my okole in water. "Gunfunit", I said and waded out the companionway.

June 29, 1991, was a bit better. I was rowing around a trimaran anchored out in the Gulf Islands of British Columbia. "Has a bit of a Kelsall look," I thought. "No, Skip Johnson or Kantola, maybe." I had gone to look at a Kraken 33 but here was this beautiful, if neglected, boat with the look of that special puppy in the window of the pet store. He smiles, wags his tail, and says, "I'm yours."

And so it was a few months later that a full moon rose over Montaque Harbour as we stepped on deck to spend our first night as owners.

"Sugar Blues" was designed by Derek Jones of Vancouver, B. C. in the late 70s and hit the water in 1980. Two boats were originally started, both done in a combination of strip plank and tortured ply. After his set of hulls was done, Derek decided he didn't like wood and used them as molds to pop off Airex foam sandwich hulls. Derek's partner finished his so "Sugar Blues" does have a wooden sister in Vancouver. Derek finished the decks out in klegecell with final dimensions at 39 by 23 feet. The center board increases the three foot draft to eight feet. The 44 foot mast is stepped just about exactly in the center of the boat. The gale off the Oregon coast really impressed me. Surfing in the high teens, the little Autohelm autopilot kept the course straight as an arrow. I did leave a few fingerprints in the stainless steel wheel, however, as a couple of times I put my hand on it "just in case." One complaint: it sure is wet compared to the old Piver that I broke.

We feel really lucky to have found her and luckier still to have her built so well and so strongly by such a talented individual. Derek is now off to England to open a seaside inn, and us, we're off to the South Pacific and the dream that "Sugar Blues" was built for.