STAR PRODUCTIONS OF BIRKENHEAD
Star Yachts "Guaranteed to Sail"
Star Productions were founded by a First World War Belgian refugee Franz Marie Denye. Having worked in the Liverpool dockyards during the war once hostilities ceased he set up Star Yachts to manufacture a large range of wooden pond yachts and other children’s toys. He and his family continued production until the compulsory purchase of the factory forced closure in 1990.
The range of yachts and motor boats produced by Star was considerable in size and whilst there were many models which were consistent throughout the 70 years others varied enormously. Many can only be described as seaside or bath toys whereas others were serious sailing yachts made only to order. What makes collecting Stars even more interesting is that it appears few records were kept of many of these yachts. Sometimes this makes dating particular yachts difficult. The situation is complicated further by the fact that Star also produced boats for other manufacturers for example fishing boats for Lines Bros/Triang.
It is said that “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” so there is a certain irony in the fact that following the demise of Star the Chinese started to reproduce some of the models. These were sold both in this country and North America.
Arguably in 70 years of the 20th century Star produced one of the largest ranges of Pond Yachts in tremendous quality and quantity. They were sold by some of the largest retailers such as Gamages and Bassett-Lowke and also by corner shops and arcades in most of our seaside towns.
Star Yachts can now be found in antique shops and collections literally all over the world.