Origins of The Starling
The Starling class yacht was conceived, and the design commissioned, by John Peet in the late 1960s. At the time, there were no single-handed boats available in New Zealand, for bridging the gap between the P-class and the adult Finn, OK, Cherokee and Zephyr classes. Many young sailors were leaving the sport because the step to the adult classes was too great. A stepping stone class was required. In consultation with parents of current P class sailors, a set of criteria was formulated for the proposed class:
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- The boat should cater to teenagers not able to cope with adult monotypes.
- Crew weight could be approximately 50–70 kilograms (110–150 lb).
- The boat should be easily handled in fresh conditions, plane readily and have good windward performance.
- The appearance of the boat to be of high priority.
- Buoyancy to be of P class standard.
- Cockpit space for two teenagers or one adult.
- Construction to be simple.
- Very close restrictions so that all boats to have equal performance; e.g. masts from standard aluminium extrusion, sails from the same material and same loft.
Des Townson, the designer of the successful Zephyr, Mistral and Dart yachts of the period was approached to design the boat, and he completed this in June 1969. To confirm the simplicity of the construction concept, teenager David Peet built the prototype as his first boat-building project. The Starling was launched at Westhaven, Auckland on Anzac weekend 1970. Extensive testing of the prototype was completed over the following months, by dozens of P class sailors. Feedback was very supportive and encouraging, with a great deal of enthusiasm expressed for the concept and the finished prototype.
The prototype Starling was sailing off the Glendowie Boating Club in the early 1970s. Originally, the sail design was fully battened; however, this was changed to the current format after feedback from sailors indicated a flexible sail layout was more suitable.
Quote excerpted from StarlingWebIntroduction.pdf
Read more about this topic: Starling (dinghy)
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“Compare the history of the novel to that of rock ‘n’ roll. Both started out a minority taste, became a mass taste, and then splintered into several subgenres. Both have been the typical cultural expressions of classes and epochs. Both started out aggressively fighting for their share of attention, novels attacking the drama, the tract, and the poem, rock attacking jazz and pop and rolling over classical music.”
—W. T. Lhamon, U.S. educator, critic. “Material Differences,” Deliberate Speed: The Origins of a Cultural Style in the American 1950s, Smithsonian (1990)