Isaac E. Smith

Who was Isaac E. Smith?

Isaac Edgar Smith was a boat builder based in Port Washington, New York. Isaac, or "Ike" as he was commonly known, was born in Charleston, Illinois to Stephen Baldwin Smith and Mary Elizabeth Smith. His parents were residents of Port Washington, but had traveled to Illinois in 1856, returning to Long Island when Isaac was two years old. His father was a boat builder and owned the business where Isaac Smith spent his apprenticeship upon the conclusion of the American Civil War, in which his father had served as a pilot aboard the steamship "T.V. Arrowsmith".

After completing his apprenticeship, Isaac Smith opened his own boat building business on Shore Road in Port Washington. It was there that he was to build the first 22 Star Class sailboats during the winter of 1910–11. The Star Class was designed by Francis Sweisguth from an earlier design by William Gardner, at the prompting of George Arthur "Pop" Corry – known today as the "Father of the Stars." The boats originally sold for $240 plus $20 for sails, but due to their high quality they were fetching two–three times that more than 10 years later. Of the original 22 stars, half were purchased by the American Yacht Club of Rye and the rest sold to various clubs on the western end of the sound. Francis Sweisguth and George Corry were among the initial owners."A Pictorial History of the Star Class". http://www.starclass.org/history/pictorial-1.htm.