TWINKLE has come a long way....to put it lightly! All the way from the Great Lakes in 1983 down through the canal system, Eastern seaboard, throughout the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico and on to the shores of the southern Outer Banks of North Carolina.
She was a yacht tender workhorse for her mothership, the ARIES, a Canadian built Bayfield cutter for over 35 years. She was passed down to me, the youngest offspring of Jim and Helen Wallace, upon their passing.
As Mom explained, she was named 'Little Star' because their sailing vessel, ARIES was named after the first star in celestial navigation, so her little tender would be named little star. As I helped Mom adhere the numbers and namesake, I told her that one day when she was mine, I would name her TWINKLE Little Star!! (and so she is)

The "Conny" yacht tender was built by E.D. Stokes Associates Inc in Cleveland, Ohio. Although the brochure has her rigged as a catboat, the rig I inherited was lateen, (like a Sunfish). And so the process began to give her a proper traditional rig~
I attempted to consign local sailmakers to sew her a traditional tanbark sprits'l rig sail. After a year or so of delays and pass offs I decided to start looking elsewhere. Being in the small craft restoration field, I didn't have to go too far to find some folks who sold wooden kit boats and stock sails. Since my other boat had a sail from Duckworks, I tried there. Low and Behold, they sold a stock Neil Pryde (pram) sprits'l tanbark sail for the right price!!
This past summer has been a restoration flurry to get her toe rail replaced, painting the hull and varnishing all her wooden spars that I now re-configured to hold a sprit. Only spar change was the addition of a snodder block I screwed into the mast. As for the sail, I decided to attach to the mast with sail rings...oh so pretty and traditional.
Her maiden voyage as a sprits'l was out into the White Oak River with my pup. She handled so well and wasn't near as tender as she normally is as a rowboat. As a sprits'l, she has no boom, so I don't have to worry about bumps in the head on such a small boat.

Her journey with me began as a tender for my catboat SPARROW, but she soon found her best purpose as my plein air studio boat. (Yes, like Claude Monet). But being restored as a little sailor, a breath of fresh air fills both of our sails. She is such a pretty old girl, I'm taking her up to the Mid-Atlantic Small Craft Festival to let her sail amongst her brethren of small craft sailors this weekend. Now we will both be restored~