Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length.

[Mike66]

Hi folks


New forum member from Scotland. Dug out my old SY3 Star Yacht that I last sailed 50+ years ago, currently giving it a tidy up and hope to get it back on the water soon.


Have also found a couple more, a SY4 and a SY5, so lots of fun to be had tidying them up too. Hull is coming along nicely on the SY4, photo attached.


Cheers
Mike

[malcolmfrary]

Good memories.  I just wish that there were still pools where boats like that could be sailed around here.  There used to be several, all vandalised by the council in the name of progress.

[ChrisF]

Memories indeed, well over 50 years ago when me and my brother had one each, green with red edging. Don't know what number though.

Chris

[Mike66]

This is the SY5, the blue and white SY4 was in pretty much the same condition before I started to tidy it up.

[Mike66]

And this is my original SY3, which won't need too much attention before going back on the water 

[RST]

Well I'm still a 'nipper but it was a holiday to Cromer and my late Father buying me a star yacht in the early 80's that started it all.  I trashed fairly quickly of course.  From memory it was yellow with a red(?) sheer line about maybe 10 or 12" on the waterline, with a folding bowsprit.  My younger brother got a red one with white sheer line, no 'sprit, maybe 7-8"'odd mm in length?  Your pic of the white one reminds me of my yellow one so far.  Neither were big enough to have rudders.  We were on a family holiday in Cromer.  Few things I remember because of our star yachts:

• We were there every night sailing them
• One day the pond was empty and spat the dummy out -next time we went it was crystal clear water down to the bottom -creepy as I remember as a 5 or 6 year old which freaked me out!
• One day a lovely old gentleman let me have a sail of is puffer:  I remember crashing it head-on to another free-sailing yacht within a couple of minutes!
• I also remember one night a guy turned up on his motorbike with his lady on the back riding pillion, and must have been a 3 or 4 foot wide ferry of some kind balanced cross-wise on her knees*.  I didn't ask to try that time but I remember him sailing it around

*might not have been that big as I was only small, but I remember the bike rocking up and the "big boat" cross-wise -bit like a carry-on film looking back.

....My parents said that boating pond and the star yacht was the only part of the whole damned trip I was interested in! -Every b****y night we asked to go there!  I don't think I'd ever like to go back now -it wouldn't be the same.

Rich

PS:  Just found this more modern pic, considering at the time I must have been not much more than elbow-high to the pond.  Such a shame there's not more ponds like that -especially in Scotland!!...

[Mike66]

All good fun 


Some of the smaller Star pond yacht sizes ( 0-5 ) in a catalogue.

[Mike66]

Nice photo Rich, I think there is a similar pond at Aldeburgh in Suffolk ( more holiday memories    )


There is still a pond in Duthie Park in Aberdeen, will have to go and take a look.

[RST]

Nice photo Rich, I think there is a similar pond at Aldeburgh in Suffolk ( more holiday memories    )


There is still a pond in Duthie Park in Aberdeen, will have to go and take a look.

Hi, I was glad to move away from Aberdeen in 2005 -just can't stand the place having lived there for 4 years and never go back unless I'm paid to do so now, it's a horrid place.  Yes there is / used to be a nice big square pond down there.  The club used to sail on Sunday mornings if I recall though being a young adult I spent Saturday nights in the pub so Sunday mornings were reserved for sobering up etc.  I used to sail there on the odd evenings.  I's hope the pond is still there still.  There was a gentleman who used to post-up for the club but it was always a link to a private forum he was posting so I never got anywhere with it.


Rich

[Mike66]

I guess Tarlair in Macduff might be a better option for me to explore then Rich 

Cheers
Mike

[RST]

Hi Mike, now you have me intrigued on location -bit like Navids caravan -where is Isa to let slip!  Nothing wrong with the Aberdeen club -I wasn't on-line when they were there and never timed it right, but more recent posts suggests it's a private thing.  Register first, so that's not very inviting to someone prospective.  You can find the invite posts on here -I think they have not much invite to the club if it's a closed door on clicking.


Is the Tarlair club still going?  I never made it there but I heard about the lido and it's now on the bucket list after co-vid.  Portsoy has a very fine duck pond crying out for a wooden slip or staging but all the edges are a bit too much of a drop for modelling -again not seen it for 18 months plus as no valid reason to drive there to visit.


I can't comment on other ponds -these are just what I know.  There is / was quite a few places in Aberdeenshire to sail but less and less the further north you go to Inverness.


Rich

[Mike66]

I'm in Inverurie Rich 


I see plenty of boats on the Friends of Tarlair page on Facebook, looks like they have regular meets. See https://www.facebook.com/Friends-Of-Tarlair-274871435948680/
They seem to be mainly motorised, so not sure if wee 'point and hope it reaches the other side' pond yachts would get in the way.


Cheers
Mike

[RST]

Hi Mike , I guessed you were a tad north and west of the granite city but not far off!  Yea I'm famously not a facebooker so no idea if it's just all happening in in that. That said nobody would argue a free sailer turning up surely!


I'd go for it if you can get a meet-up.


Rich

[ChrisF]

Hi Mike

It was the SY/3 just like the one you posted, I got the colours the wrong way round, that me and my bruv had.

We used to sail them on the River Avon at Wyre Piddle near Pershore. Dad had a full-sized boat so that we could retrieve them.


Free sailers would be fine at our club, Knightcote, as we have access all round and the banks are grass and some days no one else is there. 

Chris

[Mike66]

Great stuff Chris, good memories.


I don't think I got the hang of how to sail them properly as a kid, but I'm up for trying again 


Cheers
Mike

[Geoff]

I had an SY4 cream and blue hull. I must have been about 10 and it put me on the course to model boating. I have very many fond memories of it. I have no idea what happened to it as it had "favorite toy status".


I used to sail in Harrow Lodge Park in Hornchuch, Essex. There was a small round pond almost in front of the swimming pool. I believe its all grassed over now, such a shame!


great days! 

[NickelBelter]

Interesting!  When I was young I had a number of these, although they weren't sold under the 'Star' name but rather 'Bosun Boats'.  This was in the 90s and I bet those were knockoffs of the original Star designs!  I think they're still kicking around my parents place...

[kinmel]

I lived a few hundred yards away from Marion Street, Birkenhead where the Star yachts were made and everyone knew someone who worked there.  In the 1950s we all had a couple of "rejects" and sailed them at the model yacht lake in Gautby Road.

[drawknife]

Wow, those bring back memories. My brother and I had a SY3 and sailed it on the small boating ponds in Peasholm Park, Scarborough.
We were there every day, a cheap holiday for our parents. Ours was a blue and white one. Wonder what happened to it.