Just came across your pond yachting web site, hope you can help me identify this boat I picked up in a junk shop in Springfield, Illinois, USA, for $2.50 USD. It is pretty bet-up, yet the lines are attractive and look suspiciously similar to some on your website.

It measures about 17.5 inches, bow to squared-off stern. Bowsprit was missing, the pictures show a temporary one I just taped on for now. No stickers or marks of any kind on the boat except a cryptic logo on the vertical tip of the mainsail. (pic attached)

I wonder if it is a real English-made classic Star Yacht, or one of the Chinese imitations. Pictures attached. If an imitation, I'm almost relieved to know that, as I bought the badly-bashed boat to fix up and give to my kids to throw around the pond while I sail my 1-meter RC sailboats. If it turns out a valuable antique, I'd be too afraid of losing it to enjoy my "investment" :-)

Anyway, can you tell me as much as you can about my boat, please?

 

 

Russell Potts: I don't think that this is a Star boat. The sail insignia is quite different from that on the Stars, though the hull form is similar. I am copying this to Trevor Smith, who is our local expert on Stars and similar toy boats. You can get a feel for the current values of Star boats by searching on Ebay, where they turn up very regularly, often much more battered than yours.

Trevor Smith:- Your yacht is not an English "Star" and as you suspect is in fact a Chinese copy.

The Reeves International, Inc of Pequannock N J around 1994 commissioned a whole fleet of toy yachts from a Chinese manufacturer under the trade name of "Bosun Boats" of which a number were direct copies of "Star" designs.

I suspect that the manufacturer after completing the Reeves order found another outlet for their products, they only had to change the trademark on the sail. Sadly they are of poor quality with an underweight keel and sails like towelling and flimsy brass fittings.

I purchased one of the Reeves yachts similar to yours but 21 inches long, it kept upright in a light breeze for all of 10 seconds before capsizing. It works reasonably well now that I have bolted extra lead to the keel, yours may require about 4 ozs.