The sail plan of the Olympic Star boats drawn by Gardner and Sweisguth.
In the true sense of the word, the Star boat is a classic. With an almost a hundred years old design, it is as young as ever. Since 1911, more than 8,000 Star boats have been built to date, of which more than 2,000 are currently being actively sailed worldwide. The Star boat already featured at the first ever Olympic sailing regattas in 1932. Ever since, a strong lobby by the international class association I.S.C.Y.R.A. (International Star Class Yacht Racing Association), existing since 1911, has secured the Star its Olympic status (with one exception in 1976).
It is a classic sight with its slender hull, and its sail area with small jib and enormous main. Lacking both spinnaker and trapeze, the crew secure their feet with the help of a hiking belt in the cockpit, suspending as much as possible of their body weight over board for trimming purposes.
When sailing became more and more professional, this style of sailing for some time had attracted giant-size, overweight crew men that were supposed to gain their teams advantages when tacking upwind. But the class proved to be innovative enough to stop this trend by introducing a complicated weight formula, which sets the overall weight of the team into a certain proportion with the weights of the helmsman and the crew. This helped to prevent crews with lighter crew men or heavier helmsmen to be disadvantaged.
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The sail plan of the Olympic Star boats drawn by Gardner and Sweisguth.
Type: double-handed keel boat
Design: William Gardner / Francis Sweisguth 1910/11
Length over all : 22'8" = 6.922 m (+12mm/-13mm)
Length in the waterline: 18' = 4.724 m
Displacement: 1,480 lbs = 680 kg
Draft: 1.02 m
Keel weight: 394.5 – 408.5 kg
Sail area: 28 m² = 297 sq.ft
Mainsail: 20.5 m²
Jib: 7.5 m²
Mast: 10.0 m
Boom: 4.5 m
Materials allowed for hull: Wood, polyester, fibre glass
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