ISLANDS 17 DAYSAILOR

Download (PDF): Owners Manual

My sister and brother-in-law came over for dinner and said, "Our neighbor across the street has a sailboat for sale."

I drove over and looked. It appeared to be a Sumner Islands 17 in excellent condition. I had bid on a 12-foot and a 15-foot Sumner Islands (see below) in the past couple of years, but other eBayers apparently wanted them more than I did.

My offer for the boat was accepted and I towed it home. I later discovered that I had an Islands 17 built by Ocean Yachts, of Patchogue, Long Island. Ocean Yachts built this and other boats from the late sixties until 1979, when it sold out to the Sumner family. Ocean Yachts apparently built the Islands 17 only in bright yellow, but the Sumner Islands boats had mostly white hulls. The Island 17 is basically a copy of the Tanzer 16, but the slanted transom gave it added length.

The main and furling jib are in good condition. The original plywood inside the transom where the gudgeons and motor mount are attached had delaminated, so I replaced this with marine plywood and glassed over it. I also refinished the aft hatch cover and made a new rudder head.

The original trailer needed a lot of work and only had 8" wheels, so I put the Islands 17 on a Cox tilt trailer with 12" wheels, a better winch and nice mast crutch.

The hull had a couple of scratches, some of which the previous owner tried to patch with resin. The original color was bleached out and when I removed the numbers, it became quite obvious, so I repainted the hull.

Finally, I made a rear mast crutch and bought new spreader boots. The Islands 17 was sold for $1500.

Around 1979, Ocean Yachts sold its molds to Arthur Sumner and his son, Jonathan, of Amityville, NY. Sumner Boat Works added its name and continued building the same line of boats few changes and sails from Hart. 

The Sumner Boat Works was located at the end of South Bayview Avenue, in Amityville, Long Island. The South Bay Sailing Center is located there today.

Sumner Boat Works sold the Sprite 8, Sumner Islands 12, Sumner Islands 15, Sumner Islands 17, Sumner Islands 19, and the Mark 25.

Apparently Sumner didn't build the Mark 25 but is was sold by Sumner. Stephen Stambleck wrote on SailNet.com (March 2009):
"The first five Mark 25s were built to order by Ontario Yachts in Toronto. The designer was the founder of C&C Yachts" George C. [Cumbertson] Another ~12 were built by Eli Laminates in Long Island. After that construction stopped due to the crash of the industry. Additional, larger models, were designed but never built.

An archived article in the New York Times about a boat show reads :
"In your search for innovative ideas, don't overlook older models. In the boating industry, newer is not necessarily better. Sumner Boat Company of Amityville, L.I., plans to show its Mark 25 for the third year. The boat features a radical sail plan with a 40-foot mast stepped unusually far forward on the boat. The sailboat, which sells for about $22,000, carries a large mainsail and small jib." (The article was printed Monday, January 8, 1990, on section C page 11 of the New York edition.

Around 1995, The Sumner factory caught fire and was destroyed including most of the tooling and some molds. One source on WoodenBoat.com said that Sumner produced boats from 1972 until 1997, but another forum entry said "Sumner was in business long before 1972. That is around the time they switched to all glass boats. They were proponents of glass covered strip planked boats in the 50's and 60's."

Justin Sumner wrote on www.voile.org in 2006, "My father, Jonathan and his dad, Arthur ran Sumner Boat Company back in the day. Unfortunately all the molds have been destroyed from the Sumner line."

At some time, the factory in Amityville was purchased by Bill Menger of Menger Boat Works. Menger became well known for his catboats. An obit for Bill Menger (2004) reports, "In 1989, a fire nearly shut down the business, destroying the molds for the fiberglass hulls. But father and son decided to continue what they started, and reopened Menger Boatworks in an old seaplane factory in Amityville, with sliding doors that open onto Ketchum Creek." After the fire they apparently specialized in catboats. Menger catboats are now produced by Thompson Boatworks.

I have not been able to ascertain whether the fires mentioned above are the same with faulty dates or if there were two different fires. If anyone has more information, I would be happy to post it here.

Someone in Oklahoma sent me this picture of his Islands 20.

I sold my Islands 17 for $1500.