Little Dipper — Starling Burgess Cutter

Little Dipper is a 41’ LOA Starling Burgess cutter built by Joel Johnson in Bridgeport, CT in 1934.  With her plumb bow, slack bilges and sweeping sheer, Little Dipper could easily be mistaken for a 19th century English cutter but her dynamic hull shape, beautifully tapered ballast keel, high ballast-displacement ratio and Bermudan rig identify her as a thoroughly modern, forward thinking 1930s yacht. She was drawn at the height of Burgess’s career, during the downtime between the design of successful J-class America’s cup defenders Enterprise (1930) and Rainbow (1934).  Burgess likely foresaw the eventual end of the big Universal Rule race boats on which he’d built his reputation and was already doing his homework, working on moderately sized, blue-water capable, cruiser-racers, when he was asked to draw Little Dipper.  The commission came from Buckminster Fuller, an eccentric 1930s futurist author, architect, designer, and inventor.  The story goes that she was part of a ploy to get Burgess, one of the most talented aeronautical engineers of the era, to work on his revolutionary, aerodynamic Dymaxion concept car.  Ploy or not Little Dipper was built and her owner and designer’s fascination with aeronautics is fully evident on close inspection.  Little Dipper is a rare package for a yacht of her vintage: stately, pedigreed, exceptionally beautiful, but still comfortable, fast, seaworthy, and easily handled.  She is offered for sale in excellent structural and aesthetic condition following an ’09-’10 refit with a new interior, a recently reconditioned Yanmar from Billings Diesel (2012), and a beautiful new set of Gambell and Hunter sails.  A 2021 survey available on request. 

Hull and Deck Construction

• Full keel with keel hung rudder underwater configuration
• Lead ballast keel
• White Oak hull structural members (stem, backbone, deadwood, sternpost, frames, floors, timbers, etc.)
• Tight seam planking
• Spanish Cedar planking above the waterline
• Atlantic Cedar planking below the waterline
• Bronze fasteners
• New deck beams and 2-layer marine plywood deck over-laid with Dynel cloth set in Epoxy with painted (Awlgrip) finish.
• Varnished Spanish Cedar cap rails, cabin sides, cabin back, bridge deck face, cockpit coamings steering chest hatch
• companionway sliding hatch, butterfly hatch and forward cabin hatch.
• Finishes: Topsides: White, Deck: Buff-Tan, Bottom: Red Anti-Fouling

Deck Hardware

• All hardware cast or fabricated bronze
• Bronze sheet and docking cleats
• Bronze dock line chocks
• Bronze fairleads
• Bronze stem fittings, chain plates and back stay tang
• Bronze self-tacking staysail traveler
• Bronze main sheet traveler
• Bronze and shell block turning blocks

Interior Accommodations

• Galley area to port and starboard of companionway
• Two-burner Luke stove to port.
• Stainless steel sink basin with manually supplied with cold water from bronze hand pump
• Settee seating / berths port and starboard with storage in shelves and lockers above and outboard of the
• settee’s.
• Cabin heater at foot of starboard berth.
• Berths port and starboard in forward cabin
• Marine toilet and holding tank on centerline forward between forward cabin berths.

Lighting, Heating and Ventilation

• On-deck Navigational lighting
• Gimbaled kerosene lamps (4ea)
• Forward cabin opening hatch
• Main cabin butterfly hatch
• Companionway hatch
• Bronze opening ports in cabin sides and front (3 ea.)
• Bronze dorade vent cowl aft
• Enameled wood stove / cabin heater with Charlie noble exhaust chimney

Propulsion & Steering

• Yanmar 3GM 27HP, fresh water cooled, diesel engine – reconditioned by Billings Diesel, installed in 2012
• Yanmar ignition panel with tachometer, kill switch and audible engine alarms
• Racor water separator type fuel filter.
• Separate control levers for throttle and transmission
• Stainless steel propellor shaft
• Two-bladed bronze folding propellor (offset to starboard)
• Original Edson bronze worm gear steering system
• Eight spoke bronze steering wheel with bare teak spoke handles

Sails and Canvas

• Gamble and Hunter main sail (2018)
• Gamble and Hunter Staysail (2018)
• Gamble and Hunter Yankee (2018)
• Above Gamble and Hunter sails in new condition
• Older suit of Nat Wilson sails in fair condition
• Mainsail cover
• Interior cushions

Electronics and Navigation

• Raymarine C80 chart plotter on companionway swing arm mount
• Standard Horizon HX290 handheld VHF radio
• Ritchie Power Damp helm compass

Tankage

• 1 x 15 gal. Polyethylene fuel tank under the cockpit
• 2 x (30-40 gal. estimated) Aluminum freshwater tanks under port and starboard berths
• 1 x 16 gal. Stainless steel black water tank in bow

Domestic Systems

• P.E. Luke Heritage 2 burner propane stove
• Columbia stove works solid fuel stove / cabin heater
• Manually operated marine toilet with holding tank head

Ground Tackle

• Fisherman style anchor
• Appropriate chain and rode combination
• Traditional, manually operated anchor windlass with cat heads port and starboard.

Dewatering Equipment

• SPXFlow 220 GPH electric / automatic bilge pump
• Bilge pump control switch by starboard companionway

Safety Equipment

• Type 1 PFD’s (3 ea.)
• Fire extinguisher, Type BC (1 ea.)
• Handheld bugle type horn

2009-2010 Refit Details

• Replaced all but two deck beams
• New marine plywood deck
• Deck overlaid with Dynel cloth set in epoxy with painted (Awlgrip) finish
• New sheer strakes
• New bulwarks
• New mast partners
• Re-planked below the waterline
• Keel bolt inspections (found good)
• Replaced frame ends and sistered where necessary (21 frames)
• Replaced aft end of cockpit house
• Replaced cockpit and cockpit coaming
• Replaced Sampson posts
• Replaced wheel box hatch and forward hatch
• Restored the original galley aft interior layout
• Replaced ceiling planking from the midships bulkhead aft
• All spars stripped of hardware, stripped to bare wood and revarnished with 9 coats
• New Douglas Fir bowsprit and associated standing rigging