Star of the 1930’s through 1960’s

 

Spars and Sails                     Tall Marconi

Mast, deck to sheave          31’9”

Boom                                      14’7”

Mainsail Luff                        30’6”

Mainsail Leech                     30’6”

Mainsail Foot                       14’7”

Jib Luff                                   20’6”

Jib Leech                               17’10”

Jib Foot                                  7’2”

During the 1920’s high aspect ratio Marconi rigs became more common on racing sailboats. Already by this time several Star skippers were also involved in racing bigger boats, including the America’s Cup boats, so most assuredly developments in the aerodynamics of yacht sails were well known to the members of the Star Class. As a further push in the direction of adopting a more modern high aspect ratio rig for the Star there was pressure from Europe which indicated that the Class would be better accepted in Europe if it had a modern rig.

 

In the April, 1929, issue of Starlights, in an article entitled “Modernizing Star Rig under consideration”, there is the following comment: “Though the idea of adopting a more modern rig for the Star Class is not a new one, Larry Bainbridge, D.S., is responsible for placing it before the I.E.C. in such a convincing light that it has been unanimously voted to give the project wide publicity and then place it before the next annual meeting at New Orleans… Our present rig with it's long boom is out of date, it does not appeal to the new man who is coming into the game and it will not retain the interest of the keen skipper who may be driven out of the Star Class and into classes that offer the modern improvements in sail design….”

The Starlights of November, 1929, continued the story in the article “Modern Rig Adopted for 1930”: “A modern rig was adopted at the annual meeting in New Orleans by a vote of 434 to 66, to become effective March 1st, 1930…. The rig recommended by the Bainbridge Committee, which gives a boom to the transom and about the same sail area as the present rig, was adopted in principle and referred back to a Technical Committee, to be appointed by the President for any necessary refinements. This Technical Committee consists of Prescot Wilson, head of Geo. Burrows, Inc., sailmakers, Ernest Ratsey, of Ratsey & Lapthorn, Inc., sailmakers, and Francis Sweisguth, who drew the original plans and was formerly with Wm. Gardner.”

Obviously, although now almost 20 years later, Mr. Sweisguth still had more than a passing interest in the Star boat and the Star Class. It is interesting to see that the Class included him on the Technical Committee when the decision to go to the tall Marconi was made. In as much as no direct evidence has been found one can only speculate how much Mr. Sweisguth had to do with the development of the modern rig and sailplan.


(Picture from the 1930 Log)

In 1929 Francis Sweisguth was named as a member the Technical Committee when the Class decided to go to the tall Marconi. In as much as no direct evidence has been found one can only speculate how much Mr. Sweisguth had to do with the development of the tall rig, and in particular the rigs experimented with on Ernest and Colin Ratsey boats Irex (#24) and Joy (#361). Pictured here is Joy with the experimental modern rig in 1929. Even after the modern rig was adopted by the Star Class in 1930 Mr. Sweisguth continued to be listed in the Logs as the head of the Technical Advisory Committee until 1933.


(Picture from 1926 Log)

Ace, Star # 202, was built in 1924 by its one and only owner, Adrian Iselin II. Mr. Iselin and Ace have been probably the most successful combination ever in the Star Class. Aside from winning two World’s Championships, once in 1925 and again in 1936, Mr. Iselin won four Silver Stars, two Blue Stars (1925 and 1945), three Bacardi Cups (1927, 1935 and 1936) and a great number of Long Island Sound regattas.

Unlike Ceti, Star # 7, which was never updated by its owners since it was built in 1911, the Ace was constantly being updated to keep up with the newest equipment. Here we see her with the short Marconi rig which was used until the end of 1929. Note that when this picture was taken in 1925 Ace was still using the original backstay arrangement of just a simple two-to-one block-and-tackle. In 1925 Ben Comstock and Bill Gidley installed backstay tracks and slides on their boat Rhody, Star # 143. They won the “Internationals” in 1926, and in true Star Class fashion everyone had to have these new fittings, which at the time were called “Rhody Runners”. The use of backstay tracks and slides became the standard way of setting up the backstays and remained in use until the 1980’s.


 

The Double Spreader Rig

The rig used in the 1930’s-1940’s

Here is Ace in the double spreader era, sometime during the late 1930’s. The double spreader rig was the preferred rig for the modern tall mast from 1930 until the mid 1940’s. There was, and still is, no specification which stipulates how the mast is to be rigged. Today the single-spreader rig has become universal, and one would have thought that there are specifications which dictate this uniformity, but this is really just the result of mast-makers coming to a consensus as to what the best rigging plan for the Star should be.

In the Star Class the deck layout has also always been left to the preference of the individual skipper. Here in this photo we see that backstay tracks have been installed on Ace, whereas in the earlier picture of Ace with the short Marconi rig we saw that Mr. Iselin was still using the original backstay arrangement of just a simple two-to-one block-and-tackle. Bachstay tracks and slides remained the principal backstay system until the 1980’s, at which time the under-deck backstay rope system began to become prevalent. Interestingly enough on some of the more recent boats the block-and-tackle system has been reintroduced, but now positioned about mid-cockpit rather than at the aft end of the cockpit as originally drawn in the Star’s plans by Mr. Sweisguth.

Another interesting item on this boat is the rather long chainplate. These got to be 1 foot or even more in length. However by the late 1950’s when builders got their boats “dialed in” these chainplates shortened up to just a few inches.


 

 

 

(Picture from “The Story of American Yachting”, credit Morris Rosenfeld)

 

Here is Ardian Iselin II with his Ace near the end of their racing days. As far as can be determined from the records in the Logs, the last year Mr. Iselin raced Ace was in 1952. Boat 2664 to the right of the picture was built in 1947, so this picture was taken in the final five years. Ace has been up-dated and appears to be as well equipped as any of the newer boats. Note that the boats in this picture, including Ace, had all gone to the single spreader rig by this time. However, from time to time people would try out the double spreader rig, one of the last examples probably being Harry Nye’s Gale which appeared in the cover of the 1960 Log.

After his death in July, 1961, both his boat Ace and many of the trophies won by Mr. Iselin and Ace were given to Mystic Seaport Museum. Ace is now on display in the collection of small boats at Mystic.

 

(Photo: 1937 Log)

Adrian Iselin II and Garrett Horder

1936 World’s Champions

In 1936 Adrian Iselin and his Ace won their second World’s Championship. They did this against a fleet of 35 boats, the largest World’s ever held by a one-design class up until that time.

During the 1930’s there was an interesting custom of stuffing the flags from the various competing countries into the trophy.

 


Stars under construction at Purdy Boat Company

This picture was taken sometime during the 1930’s at the Purdy Boat Company of Port Washington, N.Y. Four Stars are being built, two of which are nearing completion.  The deck layout, fairly standard for the time, is clearly visible on the boat in the foreground. Note that this particular Star has a mid-cockpit traveler, whereas the one directly behind does not.


Patsy Raskob

Sailed her first World's Championship

at the age of 12 in 1932

 

In the November 1932 issue of Starlights there is a picture of a young girl sitting on Pop Corry's knee. The caption reads as follows:

“Commodore George A. Corry, the “Daddy of the Star Class”, and its oldest skipper, and Miss Patsy Raskob, skipper of the Eastern Shore entry Ripple in the 1932 Internationals. Miss Raskob is not only the first of her sex to skipper a boat in an International Championship series, but is the youngest international skipper in the I.S.C.Y.R.A. The Commodore looks back to his 70th birthday, while Patsy looked ahead to her 13th when the picture was taken last September at the Pequot Yacht Club at Southport.”

In fact, Patsy sailed not only the 1932 World’s, held by the CLIS fleet at Pequot Yacht Club, but sailed in the 1933 World’s held at Long Beach, California. In 1932 Patsy finished 18th out of 28 boats, beating the likes of Herb Dowsett, Glenn Waterhouse (who was next year's World's champion) and Colin Ratsey. She did this with one WDR back in the days when there were no discard races. Her best race was a 7th, followed by a 9th. In 1933 she finished 12th out of 16 boats, with her best races being a 6th and an 8th.

The Logs show that Patsy continued to race her boat Ripple, #662, into the late 1930's, and was shown in the Logs as its owner until the mid 1940's.

 

(Photo from “Central Long Island Sound Fleet”)

The start of the 5th race at the 1932 “Internationals”, Pequot Y.C., Southport, CT. Patsy does not have the best of starts, her boat being the one with white topsides center-right in the background. Despite this, she managed to finish 9th in this race. Notice that most of the rigs are double spreader rigs.


 

Walter von HütscHler

In 1936 Walter von Hütschler, with Hans-Joachim Weise as crew, won the 5th running of the European Silver Star, which was held that year in Naples. Then in 1938 and 1939 he won the World’s.

The thing Walter von Hütschler is most famous for is the introduction of the use of the flexible rig to control mainsail shape, the principle still used today. Mr. von Hütschler claims to have come upon this phenomenon quite by accident. What he was really after was making his mast lighter by shaving off a considerable amount of wood (and weight) from the telephone polls for masts which were used in those days. The results proved to be more than he expected, and he became unbeatable for the years 1937, 1938, and 1939.

In 1940 Parkman Yachts printed a 22 page pamphlet written by Mr. von Hütschler entitled “Flexible Spars” in which he describes how the flexible rig came about.

This photo from the 1937 Log shows Hans-Joachim Weise (left) and Walter von Hütschler (right) being congratulated by 14th District Secretary Baron Fassini Camossi.

(Photo: 1937 Log)

Getting ready for the start

1936 Euroupean’s

Pimm, Star # 1078, with Walter von Hütschler and Hans-Joachim Weise, getting ready to gybe around for the start of one of the races at the 1936 European’s. Star # 1224, Sheat, to the left of the picture, is skippered by Agostino Straulino, at the time a midshipman at the Regia Accademia Navale. Straulino came in second for the series.

 

 


(Both illustrations from the 1940 Log.)

Hiking Methods

As was seen earlier in the picture of Bill Inslee’s Taurus which appeared in the 1924 Log, the idea of both the skipper and crew hiking out by laying down on the rail was a technique of long standing in the Star Class. Walter von Hütschler’s crews Hans-Joachim Weise and Egon Beyn carried this hiking technique to the maximum as can seen in the above picture. However, Mr. von Hütschler was not alone in having his crews use this hiking technique, as can be seen in the spoof shown above.

Compare this style with that of Lowell North’s crew Jim Hill, which is shown in the pages about the late 1950’s in which it appears that even more athleticism was needed to hold the body as far out as possible away from the topsides.

This style of hiking finally gave way to the present method of mini-hiking, first with the introduction of hiking straps in 1969 and then the hiking vest in 1981.

 


 

War Clouds Over Europe

The last World’s Championship held before World War II was held at Kiel, Germany, on August 21-26, 1939. Only three boats went from the U.S. Here is Stan Ogilvy’s Spirit, # 1776, followed by Agostino Straulino’s Polluce, # 1540, sailing past a German cruiser during the Championship.

In 1938 Walter von Hütschler won the World’s Championship and took the series to Europe for the first time in 1939. Actually, were it not for a mishap in the first race of the 1937 World’s, he probably would have taken the series to Europe a year earlier. After pulling the luff rope out of the mast and finishing 22nd, he went on to finishing 1st in the remaining four races, always winning by a large margin, the greatest of which was almost five minutes in the last race.

Because the very difficult conditions as a results of the impending war the German hosts did everything possible to make sure that all the contestants and their boats made it back to their respective homes safely. For example, the French contestants were escorted to the border by a German Naval Attaché in uniform to make sure that there would be no problems as they crossed the German border. The three American boats were sent to Denmark by horse-cart and then onto Norway where they were loaded onto one of the last American freighters to leave for the U.S. And the winner of the Championship, Walter von Hütschler, being actually a Brazilian national, left Germany for Norway and made his way to the U.S., where he was able to continue sailing Stars during the war years. The Star Class is fortunate that Mr. von Hütschler was able to bring the World’s Trophy along with him, or who knows what fate it might have met as the war progressed.

(Photo: collection of C. Stanley Ogilvy)