The Denye Family, A Brief History

Before the First World war, the Denye family lived in De Panne, Belgium near to the French border owning a thriving boat building company. Below is a photo of the slipway along with the Denye-Van Assche shipbuilder office with general store / tavern.

Another shot of De Panne boatyard.

Needing more space and a second slipway, the business was relocated to Ostend.

One of the finished and sailing Denye Ships.

When the occupation of Belgium happened, the Denye family had two choices, to work under the direction of the occupying forces or to escape to a more free lifestyle. Choosing the second option, Franz-Marie, his family and his brother Yule loaded their possessions onto a newly built fishing boat, the "Jan Denye" and sailed down the coast of northern France from where they then set out on a ferry to cross the Channel to England. The family made their way north travelling first to Newcastle-under-Lyme, Franz-Marie then found work on Merseyside starting work for Rutherfords, a well known ship repairers on the Mersey and was joined by his family to live in Birkenhead. The family moved into premises in Watson Street, where Marie-Valerie ran a cooked meat shop and Franz-Marie continued to work in the local ship yards.

From the basement in Watson Street is where Franz-Marie started in his spare time making his model yachts and so the story of the "Renowned Star Yachts" begins.

(See also "The Yachts" "Pre-1923".)