PeterWright
Well-known member
Hi,
On a thread about cruising to Zeeland, I happened to remark that my first vist there wss in a 26 ft. Stella, which prompted Daydream Believer to ask "which Stella?". Majot thread drift ensued as we reminisced about these wonderful products of Kim Holman's drawing board, so guilt has prompted me to start this new thread.
I was surprised by DD's experience of Tucker Brown trying to hang on to the right to build Stellas, they probably built more than any other yard, but were unable to meet demand in the early 1960s so many other yards were building. A glance at the Sttella Class Association website reveals that the first to be built by another yard was no. 6, Persephone, built by Petticrows in 1960 so just a year after La Vie en Rose. Other builders of surviving Stellas in the UK are Dan Webb & Feasey, Rowhedge Iron Works, William Wyatt, Cardnells, Alan Feltham, Dickies of Tarbert and Wright & Sons. Another 20 odd boats were built in Australia.
I never heard the outboard power idea before and I must say the crude mounting on the beam sounds most unlike the Kim I knew - he had a great feel for beauty. Apart from La Vie en Rose, the only other Stella built in 1959 was Kim's own Star Shell, built by Tucker Brown, and she had a Stuart Turner inboard. As a 12 year old, I actually crawled all over La Vie en Rose on Tucker Brown's stand at the 1960 Earls Court Boat Show, but recall nothing of her machinery - l guess it was the then ubiquitous Stuart Turner 4.
From what I recall of the early alternator on Mira's Stuart Turner it was around 15 or 20 Amps, so would have consumed about 300 Watts of the engine's rated 3 kW at full rpm, nothing like the alternators you see on today's cars and boats. The alternator itself produced pure AC as it had no on board diodes, rectification being provided by a remote metal oxide rectifier. At some stage, I recall the rectifier failing so I replaced it with the latest product from Lucas, 4 silicon diodes mounted on a heat sink and wired in a bridge format.The heat sink never got even warm, showing the high efficiency of this arrangement.
Peter.
On a thread about cruising to Zeeland, I happened to remark that my first vist there wss in a 26 ft. Stella, which prompted Daydream Believer to ask "which Stella?". Majot thread drift ensued as we reminisced about these wonderful products of Kim Holman's drawing board, so guilt has prompted me to start this new thread.
I was surprised by DD's experience of Tucker Brown trying to hang on to the right to build Stellas, they probably built more than any other yard, but were unable to meet demand in the early 1960s so many other yards were building. A glance at the Sttella Class Association website reveals that the first to be built by another yard was no. 6, Persephone, built by Petticrows in 1960 so just a year after La Vie en Rose. Other builders of surviving Stellas in the UK are Dan Webb & Feasey, Rowhedge Iron Works, William Wyatt, Cardnells, Alan Feltham, Dickies of Tarbert and Wright & Sons. Another 20 odd boats were built in Australia.
I never heard the outboard power idea before and I must say the crude mounting on the beam sounds most unlike the Kim I knew - he had a great feel for beauty. Apart from La Vie en Rose, the only other Stella built in 1959 was Kim's own Star Shell, built by Tucker Brown, and she had a Stuart Turner inboard. As a 12 year old, I actually crawled all over La Vie en Rose on Tucker Brown's stand at the 1960 Earls Court Boat Show, but recall nothing of her machinery - l guess it was the then ubiquitous Stuart Turner 4.
From what I recall of the early alternator on Mira's Stuart Turner it was around 15 or 20 Amps, so would have consumed about 300 Watts of the engine's rated 3 kW at full rpm, nothing like the alternators you see on today's cars and boats. The alternator itself produced pure AC as it had no on board diodes, rectification being provided by a remote metal oxide rectifier. At some stage, I recall the rectifier failing so I replaced it with the latest product from Lucas, 4 silicon diodes mounted on a heat sink and wired in a bridge format.The heat sink never got even warm, showing the high efficiency of this arrangement.
Peter.
