Stars

Originally posted by KazRob Ah that old myth that no one sails Stars.  There is a UK fleet in Norfolk and a few others here and there in the U.K., but it's a strong class elsewhere.

Not a myth at all. The Wroxham Stars, at least when I last saw them, seemed to be in effect just another local one design class without much connection to the world scene (although they do buy the odd second hand boat I expect). Other than that I have only ever seen one Star on the water once.

When you look at the ISAF numbers it becomes evident that there are no truly worldwide keelboat classes, they're all regional to a greater or lesser extent. There are classes in the Americas, classes with a strong European base, even Classes that are predominantly commonwealth, but true worldwide popularity, like say the Laser or Optimist, seems to elude all of them. That's why the Yngling ended up as a Olympic class. It had some kind of fleet in a a few local hotspots on more continents than any of the other choices did, and so looked like the least worst choice.

Yes, thanks for asking

5500 boats worldwide isn't bad by any measure tho. Think the latest sail numbers are around 8500

Ah - the Stars have had a full time professional class office since the early days. The year book lists the whereabouts and owner of every boat in every fleet and any isolated members worldwide. Impressive stuff - even those in museums are listed. I do believe the guy that set it all up may have been a bit OCD and famously said that if the office ever got asked if something was allowed under the rules to say 'No - you can never be wrong if you say no initially'