Two Person Keelboat (Star), Open

There were seven boats in what was the first Olympic appearance of the Star class, although it has since become the best known Olympic class and has been on the Olympic Program continuously since 1932. The Star boat had been invented in 1910 by Francis Sweisguth and William Gardner at Long Island, but was only introduced to the 1932 Olympic Program on the initiative of Dr. Manfred Curry. Some of the skippers also started in the Snowbird class, which made it difficult for them to compete in both races. Seven races were held. The dimensions of the Star boats was as follows: length 6.92 meters, width 1.73 meters, sail area 27.92 square metres, weight 680 kg, and draft 1.02 meters. The class identifier was a five-pointed star. The boat was designed for a crew of two persons.

In Los Angeles the American crew of Andrew Libano and Gilbert Gray dominated the event in their boat, Jupiter, leading from the start with a win in the first race, and winning five of the seven races to take the gold medal. The British crew of Colin Ratsey and Peter Jaffe, sailing Joy, was similarly second throughout, after trailing only the Americans in the first race, and won the silver. Canada seemed to have the bronze medal in hand after six races, but when they finished fifth in the final race, and Sweden placed second, the two boats ended up in a tie, necessitating a sail-off, which was won by the Swedes in Swedish Star in a sail-over, as Canada’s Windor did not come to the line.