The boat is Polaris, first of a run named the Polaris 43, about 1978 year and designed by Robert Perry, who told me the design was supposed to be a one off for a couple who had one of his designs before. Next thing he knew the boat went into production in the east, Taiwan, and Polaris was the first boat out of the moulds.
The design is a double ender and has a quite full body with a split keel to rudder on its own skeg, I replaced the rudders lower bush when I came back to the country in 1979, the stainless fitting was well made but some fool bonded the fitting to the skeg with a thick epoxy, plus the bolts. I then had to cut and peel the shoe off like a bannana, then have the bush remade and the shoe re welded, that was a very busy day on the RCYC slip.
Note, the job came from the well known local sailor, Craig Middleton who ran a yachting shop named 'Craigs Cabin', originally in Strand Street. Craig helped me by allowing my own clients to use his shops phone number as a collection point, very much a two way deal but this certainally helped me at that time.
I wonder when or if the mast was ever repainted, the one owner before John had the hull repainted about twenty years back, possibly the mast was done back then too.
From Bob Perrys blog, were he mentions the Polaris 43.
One of the Taiwan rip-off projects was the Polaris 43. I had been contacted by a fellow, Al Liggett, from Guam. He said he wanted to build a one-off boat in Guam and had in mind a flush deck version of a hull like the Valiant 40. I charged him a really stupid low fee and drew up a design that was essentially a modified Valiant 40, with 12" more freeboard so we could do a flush deck forward. I explained to the client that he could only build one of these boats. It was far too close to my Valiant design to let him build the 43 in series. My contract with Valiant prevented me from designing any other fin keel, canoe stern boats for anyone but Valiant. He said that was no problem. He would build one boat in Airex core construction on the island of Guam. Later he called and announced that he was going to build a mold in Taiwan and produce the 43 is series. I objected and once again explained to him why he could not use my design for this project. But this did not stop him, he was an attorney and production of the Polaris 43 began. It was not a well built boat but it did sail well and Liggett's own boat SUNFLOWER is featured in one of Steve Dashew's books as a well designed offshore cruising boat. That was salt in my wound. I was not being paid any royalties for the Polaris 43's. But the 43 project was at best only limping along so I felt vindicated.
Roy
Note, the job came from the well known local sailor, Craig Middleton who ran a yachting shop named 'Craigs Cabin', originally in Strand Street. Craig helped me by allowing my own clients to use his shops phone number as a collection point, very much a two way deal but this certainally helped me at that time.
I wonder when or if the mast was ever repainted, the one owner before John had the hull repainted about twenty years back, possibly the mast was done back then too.
From Bob Perrys blog, were he mentions the Polaris 43.
One of the Taiwan rip-off projects was the Polaris 43. I had been contacted by a fellow, Al Liggett, from Guam. He said he wanted to build a one-off boat in Guam and had in mind a flush deck version of a hull like the Valiant 40. I charged him a really stupid low fee and drew up a design that was essentially a modified Valiant 40, with 12" more freeboard so we could do a flush deck forward. I explained to the client that he could only build one of these boats. It was far too close to my Valiant design to let him build the 43 in series. My contract with Valiant prevented me from designing any other fin keel, canoe stern boats for anyone but Valiant. He said that was no problem. He would build one boat in Airex core construction on the island of Guam. Later he called and announced that he was going to build a mold in Taiwan and produce the 43 is series. I objected and once again explained to him why he could not use my design for this project. But this did not stop him, he was an attorney and production of the Polaris 43 began. It was not a well built boat but it did sail well and Liggett's own boat SUNFLOWER is featured in one of Steve Dashew's books as a well designed offshore cruising boat. That was salt in my wound. I was not being paid any royalties for the Polaris 43's. But the 43 project was at best only limping along so I felt vindicated.
Roy
