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sign ZNGO5
MMSI 235014224
MMSI 235014224
Starry Night is a 34ft (10.4m) Dutch steel “Smelne” cruiser built by De Steven of Drachten in 1984. Her first owner lived in Holland and registered her in Groningen as "Annemarie". As far as we can tell, she was sold through a Dutch broker to a British owner who imported her into the UK, and renamed her "Video Prince". She was then sold to a third owner who kept her for a couple of years before selling her to us in 1999. We renamed her "Starry Night".
Since arriving in the UK, Starry Night was been kept on the Thames until April 2008. As Video Prince she made a number of trips across the channel; we believe she was used quite a lot in coastal waters.
Starry Night is quite distinctive of her brand, having teak hand-rails on stainless steel stanchions all round compared to the more usual stainless steel tubular rails. She also has her companionway on the starboard side whereas most vessels of her type have it on the port side. When we first owned her, a number of times we were asked by lock keepers and one or two other people – “did this boat used to be called Video Prince?” At the time we were surprised by how observant these people were!
One chap knew quite well the previous-but-one owner who had imported her. He told us that she had gone aground on the Goodwin Sands in fog and had been re-floated by the coastguard using a technique developed in the Falklands war; by blowing her off the sand bank using the downdraft of the helicopter rotors. I’m not sure how this works but presumably the downdraft piles up enough water to assist the floating off process.
Since we bought her in 1999 Starry Night has made a number of excursions out into coastal waters and to the continent. Starry Night is now kept on the Norfolk Broads.