What premium performance cruiser / cruiser racer?

bedouin said:
For a long time that was near the top of my list as "my next boat". They seem to be getting hard to find these days (can't see any for sale in UK) and they are getting a bit long in the tooth as they have been out of production for 30 years
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Have to chip in here with my Lightwave flag, I've got one, had it for 15 years, bought to go solo / double handed racing, bit old for that now at 72 (me, not the boat ! )
Have gradually made it more cruiser-like over the past several years - added headsail furling, stack pack, curtains (!) etc. Longest my partner and I have done onboard is three months, in great comfort for two yet it will still get to the mid-teens downwind in a blow. apart from the raked bow it doesn't look like a 30 year old boat.
Upsides: it's quick, easy to sail fast, loads of room for two or four, everything is easy to get at for maintenance, handles well under power forwards and backwards ( I have a recent 3YM30 and a Maxprop) an important point, mine has a fin and bulb keel, they rolled like dogs downwind with the original fin.
Downsides: balsa cored hull and deck, the bridge deck mainsheet track can be a PTA and it's difficult to get airflow through the boat anchored or berthed in hot weather, not enough opening hatches / portlights. An issue with such a boat is how much do I spend proportional to it's value (not very much) which is what's happened to 'Blue Pearl' mentioned elsewhere, for sale at £44K. I have fitted an extraction fan which helps, it's also difficult to find a way to fit an aesthetically pleasing sprayhood
It's still a hell of a lot of boat for realistically around £30K (if you can find one) even though some clearly regard it as 'too old'. Hard to find 40 feet of that much fun for so little money

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There don't seem to be any LW395 for sale any closer than Barcelona - which is a long way to go for a boat of that age.

There certainly are a handful of very good boats from the late 80s/90s that might be worth considering - the oyster and the starlight also mentioned above are good examples.
 
bedouin said:
There don't seem to be any LW395 for sale any closer than Barcelona - which is a long way to go for a boat of that age.

There certainly are a handful of very good boats from the late 80s/90s that might be worth considering - the oyster and the starlight also mentioned above are good examples.
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Starlight is certainly very nice, more cruiser oriented than the LW I guess but then twice the price,( apart from the smashed up one in Essex for £27K) which of course may not be an issue...!
 
Lightwave395 said:
Starlight is certainly very nice, more cruiser oriented than the LW I guess but then twice the price,( apart from the smashed up one in Essex for £27K) which of course may not be an issue...!
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Realistically for a boat of that length/age the price doesn't make much difference if it is below say £100K. The depreciation element soon gets swamped by the other running costs.
 
If you're essentially looking for a cruising boat with a good turn of speed, which points well and sails well upwind, and can also get into double figures downwind with a cruising chute up, don't discount the Bruce Farr-designed Bavarias. They're not slow.
 
flaming said:
I think we must be talking at cross purposes... Your mainsheet should be nowhere near the halyard winches on a performance boat. And on most performance boats the kicker is a cascade and has no need of a winch.
Performance boats that have a german mainsheet system have a dedicated pair of mainsheet winches aft. Then a pair of primaries for the jib sheets, then the halyard winches on the coachroof.
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Ah now I see where you are coming from. 6 winches in total not just 2 in total which I thought you were enthusing about. Yes - 6 winches even better than two either side but I’d still like prefer them as a set of 3 on either side of the coach roof.
 
bedouin said:
They are having a laugh - I'm afraid that looks like a total write off to me.
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I think so too. A real pity, as this may well be the youngest Starlight 39. Mine was built in 1999 and I think three more were built before Rival Bowman went under. The moulds were bought by Rustler, but I do not know whether they actually built any.
If you're looking for a fast and comfortable boat, it still is. We cruised the West coast of Norway this summer and on both crossings of the North Sea we averaged 7 knots in comfort.
 
Don't we have a prominent forumite who knows all about repairing significant damage to a Starlight. Perhaps he could advise :)
 
bedouin said:
Have you seen the pictures? How much to do reckon to repair that?
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Looking at the photos, most of the damage looks cosmetic rather than structural.

I guess it depends whether you have the time, the knowledge, and the inclination.

There's got to be £5k of kit on it.
 
Bobc said:
Looking at the photos, most of the damage looks cosmetic rather than structural.

I guess it depends whether you have the time, the knowledge, and the inclination.

There's got to be £5k of kit on it.
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I think it is balsa-cored, and it seems that the outer layer has been entirely ripped away in several places, look at the stern by the support. Must be a danger of there having been significant water ingress into the core and I have no idea if that is repairable.
 
bedouin said:
I think it is balsa-cored, and it seems that the outer layer has been entirely ripped away in several places, look at the stern by the support. Must be a danger of there having been significant water ingress into the core and I have no idea if that is repairable.
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Nice as the Starlight is... You'll spend 10s of thousands bringing that one up to scratch, money that you're very unlikely to see again. If it's your dream boat, then it might be worth it, but otherwise there are plenty of other boats out there that don't come with those issues.
 
My initial thoughts for a "premium" second hand cruiser racer were in no particular order:

Centurion (Wauquiez), X-Yacht, Arcona, Sweden Yacht, Baltic, Swan (if budget permits!)

One poster mentioned a First 42s7 - sailed one down from Pula (Croatia) to Corfu in May this year. I used to race on it well over 10 years ago but is now set up purely for cruising with roller headsail and stack pack main. It is one of the rarer lead keel versions and still sails beautifully (without slamming to windward). One of Bruce Farr's finest. Getting on in age now but a well looked after one (such as the one I crewed on) is a sailing bargain imho.
 
bedouin said:
I think it is balsa-cored, and it seems that the outer layer has been entirely ripped away in several places, look at the stern by the support. Must be a danger of there having been significant water ingress into the core and I have no idea if that is repairable.
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The hull is plain GRP, not balsa cored. There is foam injecteren into the voids between the and the inner moulding. That foam is supposed to be inert, but I would not voucher for it.
Anyway, very doubtful it would make economic sense to pick up this project.
 
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