West Kirby Star

In 1906 the Star class was designed by George Cockshott for the West Lancashire Yacht Club, as a 'Suitable craft for the young and inexperienced sailor' to be used on Southport marine lake in the winter months.

They raced successfully at Southport for 16 years, with one major exception: the death of three West Lancs YC members after their star, Cygnet, capsized on the return from a day trip to Lytham in 1913, but following World War I there was no effort made to revive the winter racing in Stars on the marine lake.

Having previously raced on the Dee numerous times in West Kirby Regattas since 1909 the secretary of the Star class wrote to West Kirby Sailing Club in December 1921 to ask if the club was interested in buying the West Lancashire Yacht Club fleet following problems with silting up of the channel at Southport and a lack of support for the class with most of the junior members moving on to sail in the Seabird Half Rater fleet.

A special committee was formed in January 1922 of West Kirby members to consider buying the fleet, after a visit to Southport on 25 February it was agreed to purchase the fleet consisting of: Carina, Capella, Vega, Mars and Venus as a nucleus for a club class, it is not known what happened to the original Stars 1, 2, 3 and 5, other than Iris was sold out of the club for the sum of £30 in 1920 and Cygnet was rebuilt following her accident but never sailed at Southport again.

At the time there was a majority view of star owners that the fleet should not be expanded (11 in favour, 1 against, 2 abstentions) at the current time but instead a new boat somewhat larger than the 16 ft Star should be developed with "a more modern design and a more solid construction than the Liverpool Bay Falcons" This proposal became the Hilbre One Design.