by wmhudspeth3 » Wed Jul 05, 2006 6:26 pm
The boat's actual name is Explorer 17 by Sailstar.
Specifics are below . . .
According to "Heart of Glass", by Daniel Spurr:[/b][/u]
p.124 "Clint Pearson left Pearson Yachts in 1964 and bought a small Rhode Island company called Sailstar Boats, which later evolved into Bristol Yachts."
p.134 "Sailstar Boats... produced mostly daysailors dating to about 1962. Clint continued with these, including the [b]17-foot Explorer [/b]and Pioneer and the 19-foot Orion. In 1965 he advertised the 14-Meteor, 17-foot Defender and Starfire, and the 19-foot Voyager.
As he gained momentum and began to think of building larger boats, Clint went back to the well, so to speak, retaining the services of well known designers, a tactic that had worked so well at Pearson. The 22 1/2 foot Sea Sprite (1964), by Sailstar but built earlier by others, including American Boatbuilding, was designed by Carl Alberg. Patching together a complete line, he also marketed a number of boats built by others, including E. Farnham Butler's Amphibi-Con, built of wood by the Mt. Desert yacht Yard in Maine, but of glass by Sailstar, the 5-0-5, Tallstar, the 11 1/2-foot Little Bear and others.
In 1966 marine surveyor Paul Coble, desgined the 24-foot, 7-inch Corsair, the largest boat bult to that date by Sailstar. It had a shippy look with a full keel and a cabin that slept four.
Renaming his yard Bristol Yacht Company, Clint quickly expanded the fleet, so that by 1966 he offered the Bristol 27 by Carl Alberg, the Bristol 29 and 33 by neighbor Halsey Herreshoff, the Bristol 31XL, 32 and 39 by Ted Hood, and the Bristol 35 by John Alden. Again, all big-name designers."