Cuckoo

History

Cuckoo was built around 1929.  The first bird boat was built by Madden & Lewis in Sausalito in 1921 for Leon De Fremery, and was named OSPREY (which is a large fish-eating hawk).    Cuckoo had  - as all the Birds had - major and minor rebuilds over the years.    

There were four Bird Class boats built at the W.F. Stone & Son Boat Yard in Oakland from 1928-1929: Puffin (built 1928; sloop: yacht: Bird Class No. 12), Cuckoo (built 1929; sloop: yacht: Bird Class No. 16), Robin (built 1929; sloop: yacht: Bird Class No. 18) and Polly (built 1929; sloop: yacht: Bird Class No. 19).

24 Bird boats were built from 1921-1947 and many of these boats are still racing on the San Francisco Bay today.

Bill Claussen acquired Cuckoo in 2012.  She had been in a berth shed  for years and was an absolute mess.  Amazing that she was still afloat.  However, below the water line was not too bad but above was a total rebuild.  Bill had her in a KKMI shed for 1 1/2 years for repairs.  He worked on her for about 6 hrs a day 4 days a week along with several of the KKMI staff.  The final product was amazing.  From a derelict to a beautiful piano.  

Bill started racing her in 2014 and has been racing her steadily ever since.  The secret to a wooden boat is to keep up the maintenance  and not let anything go down hill .  Also keeping it covered makes a big difference. • 1200 lbs. modern AGM battery bank under cabin sole with inverter for 120 volts 

• Raymarine GPS, sonar, color radar, autopilot 

• Reckmann hydraulic furlers 

• Hood Vectran full batten main with Harken switch-track system