The Star was designed in 1910 by Francis Sweisguth—draftsman for William Gardner’s Naval Architect office—and the first 22 were built in Port Washington, New York by Ike Smith during the winter of 1910–11. Since that time, over 8,400 boats have been built, with more than 2,000 actively racing in 170 fleets.

The Star was the primary Olympic class keelboat from 1932 through 2012 (the last year for the event).

The hull is a hard chine design with a slight curve to the bottom section, and a bulb keel. Stars were originally rigged with a large, low-aspect-ratio gunter mainsail and jib, which was replaced by a short bermuda rig in 1921, before the current tall bermuda sail plan was adopted in 1930. In 1965, fibreglass replaced wood as the primary hull material. Other changes to the strict design rules for the Star class, include adding flexible spars, an innovative circular-track boom vang, and self-bailers.^[4]