Starlight 39

cueball

cueball

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Benfleet, Essex
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Hi All,

Well I went and done it. Today I am the proud new owner of a 2001 starlight 39 Mk2 fin keel.
Pics to follow. Any and all comments welcome from any must have modifications to what not to do. I have joined the SSOA. Let the games commence
 
Hi

I have an S35Mk2.

Nothing much specific to change on ours. Some highlights;

1. Running rigging ongoing replacements for ware
2. Standing rigging replaced for age
3. Solar panels to keep up with fridge
4. Batteries replaced for age

The above are all age related rather than make/model
 
cueball said:
Hi All,

Well I went and done it. Today I am the proud new owner of a 2001 starlight 39 Mk2 fin keel.
Pics to follow. Any and all comments welcome from any must have modifications to what not to do. I have joined the SSOA. Let the games commence
Click to expand...

Very well done you finding what must be one the last one built. Lovely boat.
 
cueball said:
Hi All,

Well I went and done it. Today I am the proud new owner of a 2001 starlight 39 Mk2 fin keel.
Pics to follow. Any and all comments welcome from any must have modifications to what not to do. I have joined the SSOA. Let the games commence
Click to expand...

Congratulations!
An excellent choice, one I have not regretted for one moment.
Ours was built in 1999, hull number 42, yours must be one of the very last.
Feel free to pm me to compare notes.
 
I owned Starlight 39, No 39 for 11 years and know just about every nut bolt and screw and where to buy replacements. If you need any assistance you can PM me.

FW it's worth. These are my recommendations:-

1. You will have three 110aH batteries on port, one for the engine and two for house. Change the two house batteries to 140aH it will double your usable power when cruising. You have a daily overhead of autopilot, nav and refrigerator. What you have left is the bit you can use at anchor. We never ran out of power once we changed.

2. The original refrigerators are air cooled, if it has not been changed, get a Fridgaboat keel cooled compressor and plate, it sips power and is very effective.

3. Fit a General Ecology water-filter in you galley. One of the best bits of kit you can fit to that boat. You watertank is a bladder, the GE filter removed ALL taste, e-coli is also filtered!

4. Fit Hella LED bow nav lights. The originals are a devil to keep watertight and the LED's are more powerful. the also match the originals.

5. The boat is fantastic down wind if you pole out the Genoa and out a preventer on the main. The straight spreaders are a boon here, it is so stable and will sail when a spinnaker will collapse.

6. Fit LED's through-out if it has not already been done.

7. Change the anchor if it still has the S'Wester. We bought a Rocna and Yachting Sports modified the bow by adding large nylon discs to make it fit. However you might find that an Ultra will fit out of the box.

I fitted a North 3DL cruising Genoa, it transformed the boat it has taffeta both sides and looked like new after 7 years. 3DL is no more but the replacement should be just as good.


PS if your cooker it not brilliant change it straight away. We changed our about 6 months before we sold it and it was revelation, we really regretted not doing it as soon as we bought the boat. We bought the Plastimo and it was fantastic, better than any cooker we have had on any boat including the Force 10 in our current boat. That is being replaced with a GN Espace over the winter.
 
Last edited:
Seven Spades reminded me.

I modified our Fridge by fitting two fans. One 120mm to the heat exchanger, there was a set of terminals on the black fridge electronics box. This helps the heat exchanger be more efficient and hence reduce run time.

I ran another, in series, smaller to a hole (and vent) under the sink to extract hot air from the under-sink area. I would be tempted to add another fan injecting cooler air into this area from the lowest point.

The issue being, is with the fridge running in warmer temps, the locker under the sink that holds the compressor/heat exchanger gets quite warm (est 35C plus, at least 10C above ambient) which makes the exchanger work harder trying to dump heat into an already warm local atmosphere.

Adding fan(s) in the locker help reduce that temp to somewhere nearer ambient. As it only runs with the compressor run time and efficiency are low.

Another idea i just had, is that instead of running the extractor fan in series with the compressor, is to run it in series with the fridge so that it extracts all the time. Or maybe just more vents...
 
Use Rob Wells, fans use a lot of energy, keel coolers are brilliant heat exchangers and are super efficient. Rob fitted cooling plates for us and a compressor with fan, when the boat was lifted for winter storage he then fitted the keel cooler and disabled or removed the fan. If you get your fridge done in the winter it negates the need for a two stage process.

The other thing I considered but never did was to fit a small engine start battery under the aft bunk and then using all three main materiel to domestic use. I didn’t do it because just fitting the 140aH batteries meant that I never ran out of power anymore.

Never having any anxiety about power is a great feeling.
 
Thanks all for the recommendations, she is out of the water currently having a refit. while Im deep into this process I will be:
1. Changing All lights to LED's
2. Change the Fridge compressor to keel cooling
3. Add 100 watts of solar.
4. Already has Ecology water-filter, change filters.
5. Upgrade the Batteries to 3 x 140 ah

I will keep you updated of progress.
 
We have an alternative to the keel cooled compressor, the heat exchanger is coiled around the galley sink through hull fitting, which is also quite efficient. I believe it is an Italian brand, but I can't check as the documentation is on board.
If I had to start from scratch, I would try to avoid running the hot air ducting under the galley to the starboard settee, as it is now. That generates a lot of heat under the fridge, where you do not want it, and I have a suspicion it might also be the cause of algae growth in the galley water pipes.
 
Seven Spades said:
fans use a lot of energy ...

The other thing I considered but never did was to fit a small engine start battery
Click to expand...

The computer fans I am using add about 0.2A to the compressor consumption (4A plus) so around 5% which i find okay.

Agree a keel cooler would be better. Rob Wells suggested otherwise to me a few years back.

I am also considering fitting another engine start battery so that i fan goto three on the domestic bank.

One thing i have done is added 100W of solar with another 200W for anchorage/mooring use.
 
gregcope said:
Is it this skin fitting;

“Isotherm 39350 SP Skin Fitting“

Sit down before viewing price!
Click to expand...

That’s it. It was the original owner’s choice. I am hoping it is going to last me out. ?
The boat was very well specced and in mint condition when I bought it. I am trying to keep it that way.
 
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