International Telstar Owners Association

The new phone number for Peformance Sailing is (410) 990-0317. They are located in the new Telstar assembly building next to the Gemnini facilities. I understand that the following email works - sue@telstartrimarans.com.

The link to this forum from the old Peformance Cruising Telstar page no longer works. Anyone who gets here thru either this link or a google search should put the following into their browser - http://www.telstarowners.org/cms/. Our unfinished website is - http://www.telstarowners.com/.

Performance Cruising hosted the Chesapeake Multihull Association at the factory last week to show off the Gemini assembly line. Kurt and I were there, though we spent most of our time talking to Tony, not on the tour. We did hear that they took 9 contracts on the Gemini at the Annapolis boat show.

Tony is having a special Telstar made for him and Sue. They are going to trailer it through Canada to Alaska, then sail down the west coast to the U.S. He plans to publicize the trip and maybe write a book. Tony believes that the Telstar needs more publicity to really sell well. He is not currently taking new orders and won't until he returns from this trip.

At least 5, and probably more, years ago, he and Neal sailed the Gemini across the Atlantic to England. I actually went to hear them give a talk when they returned at Fawcett's. He credited that trip as proving the Gemini's value and boosting sails. He wants to accomplish the same with the Telstar.

I am not sure what the workers are doing and if he will be able to recall them when and if he starts again.

John

John -

Interesting stuff. Too bad they sold the 9 boats after he sold the company. Hopefully he still owns part of it.

I'm a little surprised that he's taking a Telstar across Canada and then sailing it down over the winter. He'll have to cross the snow covered Canadian Rockies. Not the best trip hauling 6500+ pounds of boat and trailer. I hope he equips his trailer with 4 wheel disc brakes. Coming down the backside of those mountains is not too cool with smallish 2 wheel drums. I may call him with a few suggestions. And he better bring some warm clothing for the sail down from Alaska. Gets kinda cold up there on the water that time of the year.

He was talking about building the main hull with resin infusion. Maybe that's the "special". I'd like to see the boat go that way. Probably save around 500 to 600 pounds. He was hoping for even more with some other changes.

The "workers" will probably be cycled over to Performance Cruising, where most of them are anyway. I don't think they have really split up the company yet - still working on the plans.

PCI is deep with the Catamaran Company now. Laura was there to say hi but a Tommy Smith from the Catamaran Co did the tour of the Gemini line.

Tony is going to take the winter to build and then do the trip in the spring. He mentioned something about waiting fo the ice to melt.

It is a bummer about the T28 builds being put off for a year or so.

Just noticed, the official PCI web site has removed all references to Telstar. Hopefully they will put some new one up soon. We are now the only "official" telstar presence on the web.

Regards,
Maciek

Performance Cruising is no longer connected to the Telstar, so I wouldn't expect them to advertise the trimaran on the internet. The new company "Performance Sailing" is now the builder. When Tony and Sue get back from their western excursion in the spring they will probably do something about it. Tony also mentioned that he will document the trip for one or more of the sailing magazines.

Anyone wanting to reach Tony or Sue should probably call the Performance Cruising phone number. They moved back into the PC assembly building for the winter. He's building the boat by himself and there was some room left for him to work there. They still own the building and land anyway.

Interesting comments from our members. I wonder if we will see anymore Telstars built.

Tony wants to build more, but only if he has buyers in this country. To export most of them just won't work. I think he mentioned at least 60% domestic. I suppose it's as much up to those of us who are looking as him, and that means improvements in the economy as well.

I noticed the Telstar had been removed from the PCI website too. It seems a little short sighted not to have some sort of web presence for the Telstar 28 if Tony is planning on resuming building them. I am sure Will could spin something up for him pretty quick. I completely get Tony & Sue taking a well earned break and going on a sailing expedition, especially during such a bad recession, but you can't completely drop things like that.

my 2c

Any more updates about the Telstar?