Kim Holman: his
20th design was
to become the
Stella classShe is known as a British answer to the
Folkboat, but there’s more to her than that
THEO RYE
C
hristopher ‘Kim’ Holman had a happy knack
of drawing sweet, fast boats, and La Vie en
Rose, his 20th design and the fi rst of what
became the highly successful Stella class, was
exactly that. Having been launched by Tucker Brown
just two days before the regatta started, she proved it by
winning seven fi rst prizes at the 1959 Burnham Week. It
is said that the client, AE ‘Dickie’ Bird had asked for a
slightly larger Folkboat; and there is a defi nite
resemblance with her clinker hull, sharply inclined
transom and pretty bow; but there is a bit
more to the design than that.
Holman was said to work quickly but his design
notebook indicates a relatively high level of calculation
and control of various parameters and coeffi cients;
his methods were presumably the legacy of his
tutelage under Jack Francis Jones who had a small
practice near Woodbridge. As well as the basics like
displacement, Holman calculated the wetted surface
area to sail area ratio, prismatic coeffi cient,
longitudinal centre of buoyancy, displacement/length
ratio, sail area/ displacement ratio and a few others;
this was a careful piece of work.
Ratios and coeffi cients go only so far to
understanding the success of the design though, and the
lines deserve study. The body sections show that the
waterplane was kept fairly full, giving her a nice amount
of initial stability, and in conjunction with a moderately
beamy hull (for the period) and good ballast ratio was a
winning formula; successful as she was around a race
course, the hull form is also adept offshore and they
regularly make impressive coastal passages. Her
waterlines are sweet with a fi ne entry and full enough aft
to cope with a cockpit full of crew without squatting; the
buttocks are sweet and easy too. Holman kept the
prismatic coeffi cient low at 0.51 and it is no coincidence
the yachts soon developed a reputation for being
surprisingly slippery under their sensibly divided
fractional rig. Her sail area/displacement ratio is 174,
which is healthy enough, and the sections are nicelyresolved with a fi rm tuck into a fairly fi ne keel. The
Stella was, like the Folkboat, a moderate all-round
design in nearly all respects, except her success – 24 were
ordered in the fi rst year, followed by 24 the following
year. Over 100 Stellas were built in a decade, the last
being in 1972. They are all of timber, and the clinker
construction was surely another factor in their success.
Although the freeboard is more than adequate, the
clinker planking (used for strength, lightness and
economy) reduces the topsides visually by throwing
pleasing shadows that accentuate the sheer. The run of
the keel enables them to take the ground, and the
accommodation was considered more than adequate at
the time. Holman had a good eye for proportion as well,
and the low cabin roof line also contributes to a
decidedly pretty boat from any angle.
Her displacement/length ratio at 338 is also moderate
for a small yacht capable of cruising; despite the 45 per
cent ballast ratio, she would not make too many diffi cult
demands on her builder. That was all of a piece with the
original requirement that she should be cheap to build,
hence the iron keel; the target was £1,000 – although
that did creep up a bit in the end – so if it wasn’t quite a
yacht for everyman there were at least defi nite echoes
with the original Folkboat concept. Tucker Brown built
the large majority, with a few from other east coast
builders like Petticrows, but they also enjoyed modest
success on the west coast of Scotland and the AM Dickie
yard at Tarbert built at least fi ve. The design certainly
inspires dedicated and loyal owners; the Class
Association reckon over 80 survive and they have
enjoyed a revival in the past few years, which is not
surprising when you look at the competence-to-cost
ratio. Estrella, built in 1961, was brought round from
Essex to compete in the 2008 BCYC regatta on the
Solent, where they handed it to the south coast boats
with a superb display including winning the Round the
Island race overall. The Stella may have got its name
from a beer mat, but you’d be forgiven for thinking there
should really be an ‘r’ on the end.KIM HOLMAN’S
STELLA
CLASSIC DESIGNS