The Starling
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The Starling Class yacht is a one-man centreboard yacht that has been used to train most of New Zealand’s teenage yachtsmen over a period of three decades. It is a fast, attractive one-design boat extremely popular with teenage sailors for its ease of handling, pleasant performance characteristics and suitability over a wide range of crew weights. The rig is designed to allow flexibility with sail controls and as a result provides an excellent basis for learning the skills of rig tuning. For many of New Zealand’s most successful yachtsmen, the Starling Class was the place they learned the foundations of performance enhancing skills necessary for Americas Cup, Volvo Around the World and World campaigns. Almost all of the successful New Zealand yachtsmen and women have spent time racing Starlings. Russell Coutts of America’s Cup fame was a former National Champion as were David Barnes, Peter Evans, Craig Monk, Dan Slater, Simon Cooke, Bartrom and Peter Burling. All have gone on to become successful international yachtsmen. The current two-time 420 World Champion, Peter Burling spent many years perfecting his boat tuning and racing skills in the Starling class. Des Townson designed the Starling as a 9 foot 6 inch (2.9 metre) long by 4-foot (1.21 metre) wide plywood, hard-chine centreboard yacht. The boat structure is simple enough to enable home construction, although demand has lead to the availability of a fibreglass option in 2000. The original concept was to produce a one design home built boat that could be produced inexpensively and raced without continual outlay for additional rig and sail combinations. Consequently the spars are an aluminium one-design section from a single supplier and the sail is from the North loft, Auckland, also one-design. The rig has been a very popular aspect of the class, limiting ongoing costs for competitive racing. The Starling fits nicely between the Optimist and Laser classes as the preferred intermediate boat in New Zealand. The target crew weight of 48 – 70 kgs has meant the Starling, behind the Optimist, holds the largest national championships of any centreboard class in the country. The Glendowie Boating Club owns the Starling Class design and the club administers the class by a committee within the club. The club would like to see other country’s sailors have access to Starlings and enjoy the benefits three decades of New Zealand yachtsmen and women have received. Ultimately international Starling competition would be of benefit to all sailors. The Glendowie Boating Club is inviting expressions of interest to any person or company who would be interested in building, promoting or sailing fibreglass Starling yachts outside New Zealand. Text courtesy: Glendowie Boating Club |
 
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