Sunstar 18 - information please?

W

Windway

Active Member
Joined
25 Aug 2012
Messages
65
Location
Porthmadog
Visit site
I am looking at a Sunstar 18 trailer sailer which is for sale locally and in reasonable condition for its age. I would like to find out more about his class of boat, but my searches of Google have produced very little beyond a listing on Sailboat Data. I would really like to contact an owner, past or present and enquire how these little boats sail? On the face of it, she seems to offer what I am looking for, a shallow draft lake and estuary boat, but if she has the Leisure 17 credentials, then she might make a good coastal cruiser too?
 
I found this old thread here

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?16102-Sunspot-15#E6HirKWc0dL3cLAW.99


From which I copied this summary (which was referring to a sunspot 15, the smaller sibling of the family)

Hi,
These are great little boats that ought to be able to be bought cheaply, built by Sun yachts in Essex and designed by Arthur Howard, who designed the leisure 17. She is basically a scaled down leisure 17 and should sail just as well with all the good attributes that are associated with the leisure. Her bigger sisters, also by Howard, were the Sunstar 18, the Sunray 21-withstanding headroom! and the Sunflare 27 . Only a few were built of the latter, and tylers had the moulds for this boat for a few years after Sun yachts closed shop.
There are plenty of Sunspots around, but unfortunately, all the ones that I have spotted in recent years, have looked more than a bit neglected! So you may need to be prepared to buy a tin of elbow grease, but you will end up with a tidy and handy minature yacht that is more than capable of taking you safely to sea..



I have a share in a Sunray 21, the bigger sister to the Sunstar 18, though I can't be of much further help as I have never seen a Sunstar 18
 
If it is in decent condition, it would likely make a capable boat for inland and coastal sailing, in my view.

Be clear about how much time/money it would take to bring it (and the trailer) to safe, usable condition.

You describe it as a trailer-sailer, but I very much doubt you would want to be launching/recovering from the trailer frequently. Having a trailer, though, would be great for taking the boat home each season, or occasional moves to new cruising grounds.

Hoskyn's A-Z Good Yacht Guide (published late 1980s/early 1990s?) said:

'One of a popular range of boats designed by Arthur C. Howard in early 1970s. Not beautiful but honest, strongly built (by Intermarine Ltd.) cruisers that sailed surprisingly well and provided simple roomy interiors. A great success in their time and with a long production run (the original Leisure 17 is a close relative). Early boats by Sun Yachts.'*

'Sunstar 18: Popular and probably the most successful of the Sun range from the early 1970s. A little bulbous and 'jelly-mould' for modern tastes, Sunstar performed well with a simple roomy interior and was strongly built. Along with the Leisure 17 they are not so popular now, but often represent excellent value for a first boat.'​

(*I'm not sure whether there's an intended implication there that the Sun Yachts built boats were less strongly built than the Intermarine ones, or just slightly sloppy addition of further information to the original text.)
 
I had a Sunray 21 for several years. Lots of space below and sailed surprisingly well, despite the rather bulbous shape. I think Arthur Howard was quite skilled at bilge keel design. On the Sun yachts, the keels are filled with steel stampings so you need to keep the keel bottoms in good order. I bought mine as a restoration job, but after a good clean up, I bought some sails, got the outboard going and went sailing!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top