❖ STAR BOAT 'ACE' ❖ With a fat trophy to bring home ❖ 1936

Winners of the Star International Trophy
L-R: Skipper/Owner Adrian Iselin II and
Garrett Horder
1936 at Rochester, New York.

In Rochester, N.Y. Adrian Iselin II, skipper and owner of the Star class, ACE, and his crew, Garrett Horder, shown just after they won the International Trophy in the "Star Class Yachting Classic" held off the Port of Rochester on Lake Ontario.
      In the series of five races the ACE totaled 159 points as against 156 for the defending champion. Mr. Iselin won the trophy once before with ACE, in 1925.
      

The Star boat fleet is seen
during one of the races of a series 
for the right to represent the Puget Sound area at the 
International Star Boat Regatta, San Francisco, CA 
September 1934.
L-R: the MAHERO, ARGO, ALCOR, & GOONY with
CENE in the background.
ALCOR was announced the winner.
By this time, the Star Class was admitted to the Olympic Games.
Sailors names not listed.
Original photo from the archives of the S.P.H.S.©

See more history below.

Star boat ROWDY, SYC.
Skipper Betty Osborne, July 1947.
After this update there was space for 17 sailboats on this dock.
Original photo from the archives of Saltwater People Historical Society©

"Jack Graham and Ted Geary influenced competitive racing on Puget Sound with the introduction of the Star. The Blanchards [of Seattle] built four Star boats in 1923. The Star became an international design and was popular on the East Coast and in Europe. The original design was by a man called Gardner.
      The Star was a natural evolution from the cat-boat and was almost unsinkable. Nonetheless, its popularity dropped off quickly in 1925, after a tragedy on Lake WA in which four Univ. of WA. students drowned. These students were on their way to a frat party across the lake. They filled the forward flotation compartments with party supplies and removed the foredeck hatch to provide room for an ice cream freezer. Then three couples climbed aboard. This was too many even for calm water. A sudden storm blew up, and in those days before floating bridges curtailed the sweep of the wind, huge swells swamped the boat. Two of the women survived, but the loss of four young lives put a damper on Star boat sailing. The boat was marked as unsafe; this was a bad rap.
      Originally the Star had what was called a sliding Gunter rig. Later, taller rigs became popular with a full main but with a much shorter main boom. Class rules were changed accordingly.
      The Star recovered its popularity by 1931. A meeting in the late fall of 1929 attracted about 50 sailors in an effort to establish a common design for competitive racing. Some wanted high-performance catboats with hard chines because these boats were easier to build and cheaper, and others wanted a more sophisticated boat that could perform better. There were a lot of ideas for boats under 30-ft. The Star was the consensus choice of most of the sailors. Stars were popular worldwide and were raced in many championships, including the Olympics."
      The Seattle sailor who brought home the Olympic Star class trophies can be viewed on a post here.
Article above from Seattle Yacht Club 1892-1992 by Warren, James R.

The Star was designed in 1910 by Francis Sweisquth––draftsman for William Gardner's Naval Architect office––and the first 22 were built in Port Washington, N.Y. by Ike Smith during the winter of 1910-11. Since that time, over 8, 400 boats have been built. The Star began as an Olympic Games class in 1932. Although far from a modern design, the class remains popular today, with about 2,000 boats in active racing fleets in North America and Europe.
Above text from Wikipedia /2014.