Starlight is based on an 1890s St Lawrence River Skiff built by Alexander Bain in Clayton, NY. The original design was stretched to 21′ in order to increase capacity and speed under sail, the 3’6″ beam was kept to minimize wetted surface. As is typical with SLRS, the hull is finer aft than forward. This encourages the hull to trim slightly stern down, which improves tracking.
Many SLRS were rigged to sail, usually with a single boomed sprits’ls. They sometimes had folding centerboards and were sailed without rudders. Starlight has a balanced-lug yawl sail rig that was commonly used on sailing canoes of Bain’s era.
Tandem centerboards with control lines led to the center thwart are used to allow shifting the center of lateral resistance to suit the loading, sail trim, and conditions.
The construction is mostly traditional SLRS; rabbeted stems and keel, bent frames, brass thwart knees, and ceiling up to the thwart risers. The planking is 6mm okuome, screwed to the frames and glued at the laps. A 3/32″ brass shoe protects the keel when beaching, supplemented by four bilge runners.
Starlight is rowed extensively on and around Puget Sound, and completed the 2019 Seventy48 race with the owner and his son as crew.