Star sailboat rebuilding

[rodangus]

Good day all. Just purchased a '68 carvel hull Star which needs a wee bit of woodwork. Can anyone suggest an online site regarding Star rebuilds? The International Star site is rather lacking any info. (unlike Thunderbirds etc.) thanks in advance, Rod

[Wayne Jeffers]

Rod,

Congratulations on choosing one fine design!

I don't think they're that much that is truly unique in rebuilding a Star, as opposed to any other carvel daysailer.

What kind of shape is she in? What repairs does she need?

You can probably get answers here, about as well as anywhere.

Tell us about it!

Wayne

[Todd Bradshaw]

Are you sure it's carvel planked? All of the wooden Stars that I've seen, including the one I owned and rebuilt were cedar planks on cedar frames and the planks were glued, edge-to-edge, with some sort of ship-lap or tongue and groove-style joint. They were not the traditional calked-seam type of planking used on most carvel planked boats. They were intended to be dry-sailed and not designed to take-up water to seal the planking seams. Star sailors are very weight conscious and the last thing they would want is a hull that has to soak-up water weight to seal itself.

From what I could find when I rebuilt mine, you're pretty much on your own as far as restoration. I first consulted the high-muckety-mucks in the class association and they aren't very interested in the old wooden boats. Their response to my questions and proposals about restoring my boat essentially boiled down to something like "do anything you want within reason to your hull, because no matter what it is, your boat is never going to be able to compete with the modern, fiberglass, self-bailers". This really is true, but don't let it discourage you. Even though you can't go out and win the Star Worlds in your restored woodie, it can still sail beautifully and be a lot of fun.

One of the toughest things to deal with if you intend to enter your woodie in any official Star Class race is that it must first be equipped with flotation bags and then be buoyancy certified by the class. No float - no race. Since the boats are mostly fiberglass these days, the float bags for old wooden ones are quite hard to find. For daysailing, unles you intend to be out in really windy stuff, you can generally get by without them. Keep in mind though that you don't have positive flotation and don't push your luck.

It is definitely worth $25 to buy the "Star Class Tuning Guide" video tape from the class association. It's got Vince Brun and Jim Kavle going through set-up, tuning and sailing the boat. It was a tremendous help in rigging, rebuilding systems and learning how to use them. These guys really know how to get the most out of a Star and you'll learn a lot by watching them sail. Some of the other tapes were interesting, but weren't much help - mostly accounts of various championship races and a bunch of famous sailors telling you what a great design the Star is.
This is the tuning tape:
http://www.starclass.org/cgi-local/SoftCart.exe/online-store/scstore/p-404.html?L+scstore+vknj4828ffd11fd1+1030554736