classic snipe sailboat

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World’s coolest yachts: The Snipe dinghy

• Elaine Bunting
• March 7, 2022

We ask top sailors and marine industry gurus to choose the coolest and most innovative yachts of our times. Dutch racer Bouwe Bekking nominates The Snipe dinghy.

“I would take a complete crazy thing: a Snipe. I think it’s an excellent boat for kids to start sailing in, and even for grown-ups. I have a Snipe dinghy myself.”

Bekking says the 15ft Snipe dinghy, designed by American William F. Crosby in 1931 for one-design racing, is an ideal family boat, especially for teaching people to sail.

“It’s safe, it’s very seaworthy and relatively fast. You can sail it very hard but still have fun with it,” he says.

“I haven’t sailed mine for three or four years because I haven’t had time and I said to the yacht club you can use it for your youth programme. I bought it when we had a little house on the water, and I wanted to have a dinghy to sail in open water.”

Bekking says he thought the Snipe ideal for the next generation of his own family. “I thought about an Optimist, but the Snipe was way nicer and we could sail with two or three people, and friends.”

Snipe Stats rating:

Top speed: 12 knots LOA: 4.72m Launched: 1931 Berths: n/a Price (second-hand): £2,000 Adrenalin factor: 10%

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Bouwe Bekking

Dutch sailor Bouwe Bekking has taken part in eight Whitbread / Volvo Ocean Races . He started in 1985/6 aboard Philips Innovator, then in subsequent races on Winston, Merit Cup, Amer Sports One, movistar, Telefónica Blue and Team Brunel (twice), skippering Telefónica Blue to a third place and Team Brunel to a second and third. Bekking is also regular race skipper for the 43.4m J Class Lionheart.

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Published on August 4th, 2021 | by Editor

Getting started in the Snipe Class

Published on August 4th, 2021 by Editor -->

Getting started in a new one-design class can be intimidating. You may not know the boat, the people, the set-up of the rig, or the fastest sail trim. But joining a new class is not as scary or as challenging as you might think.

Quantum Sails’ Carter Cameron began sailing Snipes a year ago and in this report reflects on the positive experience and lessons learned to give others a leg up when starting your one-design journey.

Sailing the 2021 Snipe US Nationals marked my first anniversary in the boat, and I couldn’t have had more fun. Here are my takeaways after the first year learning the boat.

Chines Growing up sailing Lightnings in Charleston, I was familiar with how a chined boat sails. However, most new Snipe sailors are collegiate or recently graduated sailors who are used to sailing round-hulled boats like Lasers, 420s, and FJs.

With these boats, the goal is to sail as flat as possible so you get the most efficient flow over your underwater foils. Anytime you heel to leeward, you’ll start sliding because the foils don’t have an optimal angle of attack. The Snipe is different from collegiate dinghies because the chine helps create lift as well, and its daggerboard is not as efficient either.

The Snipe board is made from a piece of sheet metal, so it’s only faired around the edges and flat in the middle, whereas with fiberglass boards you can create shape across the whole foil. Sailing the Snipe with a little bit of leeward heel−no more than 5 degrees−puts the chine in the water and creates lift to help overcome its less efficient daggerboard. Tunable Rig The Snipe has many controls to help manipulate sail shape, which is great for the collegiate sailors who are used to having vang, cunningham, outhaul, and jib halyard to tension the rig. In addition, the Snipe has adjustable spreaders in sweep and length, a mast ram, jib cunningham, and STA-Masters to adjust rake. While this may seem like a lot, the magic of the Snipe is that you can simplify all these controls and still be fast.

Quantum’s tuning guide is spot on, so just follow that to match rake, tension, and spreader sweep and length, and you’re off to the races. I learned fairly quickly what the mast ram is capable of, but new sailors don’t need to worry about moving it in their first year in the boat. Just lock it at neutral and you’re good to go.

For the curious, however, mast forward upwind will bend your rig more and sag jib halyard and vice-versa for when you pull it back. Once you’ve got some Snipe experience, you can pull your mast aft all the way on the downwind, which helps get your boom farther out and pushes more depth into your main, creating a more powerful shape.

Whisker Poles Are Your Friend Gone are the days of the skipper holding out the windward jib sheet for wing-on-wing downwind. Now the whisker pole has come to the rescue. Snipe whisker poles are rigged on a clever self-retracting bungee system rigged inside the boom.

All that needs to be rigged to go sailing each day is to tie the end of the pole launcher line coming out of the pole to the clew of the jib and feed the other end of the launcher line through the blocks on the mast and deck to the crew. Whisker poles are great for maximizing projected area on the downwind and they really help the boat take off on the reaches. Snipes love to plane because of this set-up.

Serious Sailing, Serious Fun The Snipe Class trademarked this motto for good reason. It is truly one of the most competitive one-design classes in the world, and it’s hard to meet a better group of sailors off the water.

It’s not every day you get sail against World Champions like Augie Diaz, Raul Rios, George Szabo, Pan-American gold medalist Ernesto Rodriguez, and too many National and North American champions to count. It’s humbling to be rolled by one of these guys on an upwind, and they’re more than happy to help you sail your boat faster as well.

My favorite part of the motto is Serious Fun. I’ve made friends I’ll have for the rest of my life and had mentors I’ll never be able to pay back no matter what I do. Part of the serious fun is getting the “U30s” in the boat, post-collegiate sailors 30 years old and younger. There are lease-to-own programs, loaner boats, and numerous regatta charter deals that are geared to get this group sailing Snipes.

There’s nobody that does this better than Alex and Lisa Pline of Annapolis Fleet 532. They’ve been instrumental in getting me involved in the class and making sure I’m having a good time. Because of folks like the Plines, we’ve got a good group of U30s who travel to all the regattas. You’ll feel like you’re back in college with these folks when you’re off the water.

After one year of sailing the Snipe, I can tell you it is a fantastic boat for anyone looking for competitive, fun racing at a price that won’t break the bank. I wouldn’t change a thing I’ve done sailing this boat for the past year, and I know I’ll be sailing it for the rest of my life. So for all of you on the fence, trust me and go get a Snipe. You won’t regret it.

For more information about Quantum Sails Snipe products and tuning resources, visit the Quantum Sails Snipe one-design page .

Tags: Carter Cameron , education , Quantum Sails , Snipe

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Posted 2024-07-24 15:21

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Classic Snipe Sailboat & Trailer - $1,500 (Edgewater)

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Classic Snipe Sailboat & Trailer - boats - by owner - marine sale -...

Classic Snipe with trailer, sails, rigging, new keel, and cover. Ready to sail! Enjoy this beautiful Snipe sailboat that's ready to sail. Comes with a trailer, multiple sail sets and full rigging....

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Buying a Used Snipe

So you've decided to sail Snipes. You're not quite sure you're ready for a brand new model (what do you do with all those lines?), but you want something that will help you learn the ropes and be competitive with the rest of the fleet. Other fleet members have suggested you look into a good used boat. But what defines a "good used boat?"

Mike McLaughlin, with 30 years experience building Snipes, including the Chubasco and McLaughlin, and now owner of Eclipse Manufacturing, gives his “tire kicking” advice.

Before shopping for a used Snipe, you should first define your intended level of racing (if any), the maximum amount of money you are willing to invest, and your projected annual budget for regattas and sailing expenses.

If you are looking for a daysailing Snipe which will never be raced, look for a self-rescuing fiberglass hull with an aluminum mast, decent sails and simple rigging. Because you needn’t worry about a minimum weight or complicated sail controls, pre-1980 era Snipes are available for very low prices and are great sailing boats.

If you are new to the Snipe Class and want to race competitively, you must have a competitive boat. You don’t have to have a new boat. I recommend buying a good used boat for your first year during which you can hone your skills, crash into marks and docks, give and receive dings, and drill holes and change fittings. You can quickly scale the learning curve and experiment with this boat and become comfortable with sail and mast controls, hiking straps and sheeting systems. As you get used to Snipe racing in general, you can upgrade your boat with new rigging, sails and blades, or buy a new boat knowing exactly what rigging options work best for you. If after this first year you decide Sniping isn’t for you (does this happen?) you can sell he boat and walk away with most of your investment and many new friends.

Let’s look at the important features of a competitive used Snipe. The first thing is hull shape. Chubasco, Eclipse, Jibetech, McLaughlin, Mueller, Persson, and Phoenix are all good shapes and will win races. The Chubasco and older Phoenix and Mueller hulls, while good shapes, may be over weight or “soft”. The advent of vacuum bonded PVC foams [i.e. Klegecel] in 1980 not only made for long lasting boats, but reduced the chance of hulls absorbing water and becoming overweight.

Weigh the prospective boat: if it is more than five pounds overweight with no visible corrector lead, look at other boats. Don’t worry about the moment of inertia; it is not that important in the big picture and most post-1980 boats will be at or near the allowable minimum.

Check the overall structure of the hull and deck. There should be no soft spots on the hull, deck, or floor liner. Most used boats will have had some rigging changes so there may be some small holes or patches. Check to see that all fittings and hiking straps are well fastened and caulked and check the overall condition of all parts.

An absolute must for a boat to be competitive is a bendy mast. Cobra II, Firestix, Sidewinder, Proctor Miracle or Bryant all will work and only the Firestix is out of production. If the boat has a Cobra I, Mueller, Proctor A, E or EX, shop on or plan to spend approximately $880.00 for a mast upgrade. Most used boats will come with at least one set of sails. If the sails are more than two years old, they might be OK for fleet racing, but plan on spending some of your sailing budget soon for a new set. Remcmber that your mast-sail combination is the key to boat speed and should have top priority!

Of lesser importance are the blades – – your daggerboard and rudder. The daggerboard should be straight and smooth and all edges should be well tapered to the l” tolerance. The leading edge may need to be sharpened but this can be done on a milling machine by parts suppliers or you can do it with a big file and much elbow grease. The rudder should be fair and stiff and should fit tightly into the transom gudgeons. The tiller should have no play with the rudder head and the tiller extension should be at least 36 inches long with a flexible rubber connector. Rudder thicknesses and shapes vary, but generally a fat(l 3/8-1 1/2″) rudder is best for big swells and lumps, and thin (1-1 1/2 “) is best for flat water sailing.

If you plan on traveling, check out the trailer carefully. Obviously inspect the welds, tires and support bunks for proper padding and fit, but always inspect the bearings, lug nuts and lights and carry a spare tire. Many regattas are remembered only for trailer problems and not the good sailing or good friends.

Information

In such short space, all Snipe construction and historical evolution can’t be fully covered. If a used Snipe interests you, find the hull number and manufacturer and call for a background check. SCIRA will only provide research for current members of the Snipe Class.  Use the Boat look-up feature on this website: “Membership/Boat Look-up” tab on the home page.  Then type in the hull number. All boats are recorded by hull number.  Any information on hulls have been entered into the online database.  If a Measurement Data Sheet exists on the boat, it will be listed here as well as the original owner and if the boat has been registered with SCIRA. 

If you are looking for a used boat, you can visit the National Websites or visit the FB Page SnipeToday Group – Snipe Buy / Sell / Charter

Historic Review – Saint Petersburg to Havana Race

Saint Petersburg to Havana Race – The 284-mile crossing between Saint Petersburg (Florida) and Havana (Cuba) was considered in its beginnings to be one of the most important events in the nautical world

The first race took place on March 30, 1930 one hour before noon off The Pier in St. Petersburg, Florida and finished in the lee of Morro Castle at the Habana harbor entrance. It drew an eleven boat fleet and was won by the elegant schooner Haligonian owned by Houston Wall of Tampa. The race was co-sponsored by the National Tourism Commission, which instituted a gold medal as a commemorative prize for the trip. According to Mr. Gandhy’s (Commodore St. Pete Yacht Club) statements to the press at the time, the race was originally planned by The Tampa Bay Cruising Squadron, an “informal organization” affiliated with his club.

How good was this race? Participants included repeat appearances by great US yachts such as Haligonian, Vamarie, Stormy Weather, Dorade, Blitzen, Babe, Ticonderoga, Carribee, Starlight, Windjammer, and Hoot Mon, and the equally great Cuban yachts Ciclon (1st in fleet 1947) and Criollo (1st in fleet 1957)

Regatas San Petersburgo-Habana (1950) from MEMORIA DE CUBA de Jorge Molina on Vimeo .

Related posts:

• Curacao 5.5m World Championship (GER 79 wins top prize)
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• William Fife “Mikado”

One Comment

1946 St. Petersburg-Havana Yacht Race

Seeking Photos of the 51-ft ketch Santa Cruz, which was pounded to pieces off Viriato Beach at the end of the race. Found to be leaking badly, her owner Ralph Waldo Zimmerman attempted to bring her safely ashore , but fetched up on a coral reef. All hands saved.

I have only one image of her from Tampa Bay Times newspaper, photographer and location unknown. She was designed by Howard Irving Chapelle, after the early 1800s Norfolk Pilot Schooner model, but rigged as a ketch.

Any suggestions or assistance will be greatly appreciated.

Blessing and Thanks

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St. Pete To Shine Again

• By Dave Reed
• February 14, 2024

The St. Petersburg Yacht Club and the western shore of Florida’s Tampa Bay will be the epicenter of sailboat racing this weekend when more than 240 teams across 13 one-design classes and five handicap-racing fleets get races started for the first event of the national Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series in St. Petersburg . Now well into its third decade, the regatta will also mark 10 years with its title sponsor.

The Sunshine City’s motto is that St. Pete is “Always in Season,” and that is certainly the enticement for many teams traveling in from colder climes with the promise of warm breezes, stiff competition and a nightlife that’s never been more vibrant.

One such northerner is David Mierzwa, of Lake Placid, New York, who on Tuesday was behind the wheel and racing to get south of a big storm burying the mid-Atlantic and Northeast in snow and ice. Behind him was bitter cold, but ahead of him was warmth and the anticipation of his first Melges 24 Midwinter Championship at the regatta.

As a newbie to the demanding Melges 24, Mierzwa says his primary goal is to “stay out of everybody’s way,” but ultimately, he and his teammates are on a mission to learn the nuances of this high-performance keelboat from his peers.

“We’re going so we can hunt for tips, tricks and whatever makes us better,” Mierzwa says. “It’s about having the opportunity to do an event of this caliber with likeminded people, because while sailing is the goal, being surrounded by others that do the same sport is sometimes better than the sport itself.”

As the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta in St. Petersburg will be his team’s first major event, he recognizes they don’t have a high enough racing pedigree to vie for the Midwinter Championship title—yet. “The only way we can get to that point is to go out there and race,” he says.

And race they will, from early Friday morning through late Sunday, alongside several other one-design classes that are the regulars of this February classic, including the S2 7.9s and the Hobie 33s , both of which will also be vying for their midwinter championship titles. 

The S2s have the returning champions of Tom and Mary Bryant’s “Team Matros” from Holland, Michigan, which won seven of eight races in 2023 to earn their berth at the Helly Hansen Sailing World Caribbean Championship last October. At each of the series’ five events one team is selected to compete in the British Virgin Islands for the overall season title.

The Hobie 33s also have their champions returning to defend— Craig and Deborah Wilusz’s “Hoof Hearted”—but this year there’s a new and unknown challenger from Waxhaw, North Carolina, and it’s a boat with a nefarious name: “Bad Bunny.” Its new owner, Sean Rhone, says he’s looking forward to meeting and racing with other Hobie 33 owners for the first time and “taking a peek under their hoods.”

Rhone has been primarily racing his Hobie 33 in singlehanded events and low-key races on North Carolina’s Lake Norman, and like Mierzwa, he’s not sure how well he’ll fare, especially with a five-person team that’s been assembled by way of social media message boards, and whom he’s never met.

“It’s cold in Charlotte,” Rhone says, “and I’m getting tired of the cold weather, so when I saw that the fleet was having its midwinters in St. Petersburg, I thought it would be nice to go and race against some other Hobie 33s for once.”

Mierzwa and Rhone may pass each other on an interstate somewhere on the way to St. Pete, along with a sizable Canadian contingent of Contender dinghy sailors making their annual pilgrimage from across the northern border. The 16-foot Contender, which its loyalists claim to be “The Sexiest Singlehander in the World ” was introduced in 1969 and continues to be popular internationally, as well as in Tampa thanks to local sailmaker Ethan Bixby. Bixby, a champion of many classes, continues to rally the troops to the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta and the fleet has doubled for this year’s gathering. Bixby, who won all races last year, will of course be among the 11 trapezing sailors.

Sharing the same racecourse will be eight teams racing the doublehanded Windmill class, which is new to the regatta lineup, but another cult classic sparked in the 1950s. Class measurer Pat Huntley, of Erie, Pennsylvania, is now a decade into Windmill racing, and says he’s eager to enjoy some fast sailing in St. Pete and good times with his fellow Windmillers. “It’s such a fun and cool group,” Huntley says. “And the Windmill is such a bad-ass skinny and fast boat. It can handle the chop easily and is really fast.” 

Five teams racing in the 20-foot Flying Dutchman class (first built in 1951) will hail from California to Tennessee and hosted by local FD ace, Lin Robson, the 2023 class winner. The doublehanded bonanza, however, will be the Melges 15 class, which will feature an impressive 31 teams, nearly double from 2023. The new one-design class has exploded in popularity across the country since its introduction three years ago, and midwinter regattas elsewhere in Florida have maxed out at nearly 100 boats.

Among the Melges 15 ranks in St. Petersburg will be New York’s Iris Vogel, who has traditionally raced the regatta with her larger one-design keelboats over the years (a Soverel 33 and a J/88, both named “Deviation”). Vogel is now enjoying the challenge of big-fleet racing and exhilarating downwind sailing.

Racing with her partner, Tim Longo, Vogel helms and Longo handles the front of the boat, and over the past year they’ve been working their way up the scoreboard, but have a long way to go to the top. “This is a totally new thing to sail in such a big fleet,” Vogel says. “J/88 events typically get a dozen boats at best, and the racing is much slower paced. The tactics are completely different and boats are fast downwind so it’s a ton of fun, but we are still learning a different style of racing. Having the smaller fleet [at the Helly Hansen Regatta] will give us a chance to work on our boatspeed.”

While the out-of-town armada is significant, local sailors look forward to the regatta every year, especially Tampa Bay’s PHRF sailors who’ve made the event a key fixture in their Suncoast Boat of the Year Series. For these fleets, which now comprise the regatta’s largest group with 38 entries across four divisions (Spinnaker, Non-Spinnaker, Racer-Cruiser and Cruising) organizers have added two days of long-course racing over the weekend. Depending on the wind strength and direction of the day, the race committee will plot a daylong course to test each team’s navigational and sailing skills, as well as their perseverance and desire to be first to the dock and first to the yacht club bar.

Local sailor Tim Landt, who has been an active sailor on the Tampa Bay waterfront for decades, is a registered competitor in the Cruising division in his new-to-him Nightwind 35, “Charisma.” He’s excited to see the regatta’s blossoming distance-race fleet and says the local growth and interest in racing older-generation yachts is good for the sport and for the Tampa Bay racing scene.

But it’s not all classic plastics in the distance fleet. In the Racer-Cruiser division will be the sparkling new Neo 43, owned by Ken Mungan of nearby Isles Yacht Club in Punta Gorda, Florida. Mungan purchased his sleek Italian-built 43-footer in 2022 with big plans to take on a few of the sport’s marque distance races, and local events like the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta offer he and his team an opportunity to learn the boat in a racing environment.

“When I turned 40 I needed a hobby and took up sailing,” Munger says. “I’m always trying new things and got into racing 2019. I did the Melges 24 for a while, but the Neo, because it’s a shallow-draft boat, allows me to do more local long-distance racing and we’re learning a lot.”

For this weekend’s regatta, Munger has more crew lined up than there are roles on the boat, but that’s fine with him. “We’re going to be overloaded, and I am anticipating a level of skill and organization that we don’t quite have yet,” he admits. “We’ll have two coaches and a new set of racing jibs that will be used for the first time, so it will be fun, and I’m looking forward to it.”

While the long-course racers are making their way around the bay, closer to shore, will be the multihulls: the high-tech A Class Catamarans , which have two divisions (Classic and Foiling) totaling 33 competitors, and the Weta Trimarans , with a smaller contingent from years past, return with nine boats, and among them is two-time defending champion and local Pete Merrifield looking for a three-peat.

         The iconic Lightning Class is one of the regatta’s largest one-design fleets, with 25 boats, five of which will be raced by members of the Starck family with a few world champions among them. Hall of Famer, Augie Diaz, of Miami, and Ched Proctor, of Southport, Connecticut, both world champions as well, always add to the high level of racing and camaradarie Lightning sailors enjoy all winter. The Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta in St. Petersburg is a key warm-up event for the Lightning class’s hotly-contested two-regatta Southern Circuit with March events in St. Pete and Miami.

Sharing one racing circle immediately off the city front will be the 29-boat J/70 fleet and a reemergent J/24 fleet, both of which will no doubt provide quality racing for both professional and amateur sailors. The same will be true for the ever-competitive ORC fleet, with 11 entries, which will be racing further south. Bill and Jackie Baxter’s J/111 “Fireball,” from Stamford, Connecticut, which has won all of its events this winter will return to defend its 2023 ORC title, which it earned with ease, winning seven of eight races.

• More: Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series , Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series St. Petersburg
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