US Snipe Sailor

Winter 2016

SCIRA USA2812 Canon Street

San Diego, CA 92106619-222-0252

Danielle Richards, Executive Administratordanielle@odmsail.com

Sherri Campbell, SCIRA Financessherri@odmsail.com

Jerelyn Biehl, SCIRA Executive Directorjerelyn@odmsail.com or jerelyn@odmsail.com

For you northerners, Snipes should already be stored for the winter. For you southerners, the season simply continues on or is either just getting started. I am especially envious of the latter group at this time of year. I always look forward to SnipeUSA, SnipeToday or Facebook updates from those who can still sail to help chase away the New England winter blues. Regardless of your geographic location, I urge you all to reflect on what simple things can be done by each and every one of the 500+ US Snipe Class members that can lead to even more serious sailing and serious fun.

I encourage all of us to consider how we can help ourselves by making a tax-deductible contribution to the US Class Perpetual Fund (http://snipeusa.com/about/perpetual-fund/). Also, please consider reaching out to crews and/or friends and gift them a membership for 2016 (http://snipeusa.com/2015/12/snipe-usa-2016-gift-membership-program/). For all such gifts (click on the box on the on-line form), we will send the new member a card welcoming them to the class that includes an abbreviated regatta schedule for the year as well as useful links. I am confident that

the membership ($30 or $20 for juniors under 22) will be more appreciated than the equivalent cost of Santa socks or that bottle of wine that won’t last nearly as long. They will thank you for it with each Snipe Bulletin they receive all year.

Also, I could use your help for a project that I am taking on, and this is to get a sense of how much fleet racing is going on around the country. Specifically, I’d love to get my hands on as many fleet racing final results as I can that include numbers of races and competitors – whatever you have whether it be a handwritten form, a spreadsheet, whatever. I would also appreciated whatever comments / observations / stories from your fleet racing season that you would be interested in sharing. I will appreciate whatever you can e-mail me and will report back what I find.

Cheers,Art Rousmanieree-mail: art.rousmaniere@gmail.com

Art Rousmaniere incoming US National Secretary

In MemoriamKen Rix - Fleet 98

John Lally - Fleet 77Dr. Bob Jackman - Fleet 495

Tom Leger - District 1

Interested in hosting a SCIRA USA Qualified or Nationals? We are looking for

hosts for the following events2016 Qualifiers for the 2017 Worlds & Jr. Worlds – East & West

2017 US Nationals - District 1

2017 US Jr. Nationals – Anywhere

2017 US Women’s Nationals – Anywhere

2017 US Masters Nationals – Anywhere

2017 Qualifiers for the 2018 Western Hemisphere Championship – West & Midwest/South East

Contact the office or a SCIRA USA Board Members today to learn about hosting requirements!

Winter 2016 2

2015 Snipe District 2 Regatta SeriesDistrict 2 is a big district with fleets in Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Iowa, and Colorado. To travel to a regatta often means you have a 12 hour drive in front of you. To encourage more participation in the regattas hosted by the many clubs around the district, District 2 started the Best Fleet Award. Five of the District 2 regattas were selected from May to September to be included in the series. Mary Buckley, of the Lincoln fleet, developed a scoring system to encourage boats to attend the regattas. Every boat that attended was able to earn points for their fleet, regardless of where they finished.

The 2015 regatta series attracted 47 skippers and over 60 crew members. The largest regatta was the Firewater in Lincoln with 20 boats and the average regatta attracted 15 boats. The Bow Mar Yacht Club, fleet 640, just managed to beat Dallas fleet number 1 for the Best Fleet Award. A summary of the results are below. The higher the fleet score, the better.

Regattas Bow Mar Dallas Rky Mtn INAS Lincoln Wichita Windycrest Houston

1. Southwestern 8 28 0 0 0 0 0 0

2. Firewater 48 36 0 41 50 15 0 0

3. Norm Tanner 44 17 30 0 0 0 0 0

4. Rocky Mtn Champs 34 45 60 0 14 0 0 0

5. Missouri Valley Champs 15 17 7 55 26 0 0 0

Total 149 143 97 96 90 15 0 0

Since the Bow Mar Yacht Club won the Best Fleet Award for the first year, it was tasked to come up with a trophy. The trophy was designed by commodore Mike Slouka and built by Fantastic Sailing Trophies in Australia. The trophy has several boats on it to represent the fleet that helped win the award. The photos below show the trophy and some of the fleet members that participated in the win.

Winter 20163

Bow Mar also decided to further encourage boats to participate in all the District 2 Series regattas, by awarding a trophy to the top skipper in the District 2 Series. Martin Bebb and Steve Tautz were the only skippers to make all five regattas this year. The hope is that next year there will be more incentive to go to all the regattas.

Place Skipper Southwestern Firewater Bow Mar Rky Mnt Missouri Total

1 Steve Tautz 1 2 1 1 1 6

2 Martin Bebb 7 3 7 2 8 27

3 Gene Soltero 2 1 4 5 16 28

4 Pat Flood 9 4 15 18 3 49

5 Mike Slouka 9 6 10 8 16 49

The photo below shows the winning skipper trophy. The trophy has the District map with some of the more active fleets shown.

District 2 welcomes all sailors and is working to bring the Snipe sailing family together to build life time relationships. At the fleet level the sailing might not be so serious but we are having serious fun so come join us in 2016.

Florida State Championship Racing1 USA 31130 Ernesto Rodriguez 1-1-5 72 USA 30282 Cara Vavolotis 2-6-6 143 USA 2944 Carol Cronin 4-7-4 154 USA 29442 Peter Committe 6-10-1 175 USA 8653 Hal Gilreath 3-5-11 196 USA 30027 Jensen McTighe 5-2-13 207 USA 30473 Arthur Blodgett 11-9-2 228 USA 29781 Sean Cornell 8-3-12 239 USA 28814 Nicholas Voss 10-13-3 2610 USA 30288 Kathleen Tocke 7-11-8 2611 USA 30904 Lee Griffith 9-8-9 2612 USA 29782 Zack Kelchner 13-4-14 3113 USA 29681 Kristen Walker 15-17-7 3914 USA 25721 Benjamin Mohney 14-15-10 3915 USA 30281 Andre Guaragna 12-12-OCS4416 USA 28470 Stephan Irgens 17-14-15 4617 USA 29324 Chris Klotz 16-16-16 4818 USA 29963 W. Steve Lang 18-18-17 5319 USA 26763 Kristen Herman DNC-DNC-DNC60

Florida State Championship/SCIRA USA WHO QualifierSt. Petersburg Yacht Club, St. Petersburg, FLNovember 20-22, 2015

18 Snipes sailed out to the starting line Friday morning in St. Peters-burg, Florida in a nice 9-12 knot northeasterly. For many, it was the first view of an empty St. Pete Pier (here’s a link to the time lapse of the demolition: https://www.squaremouth.com/st-petersburg-pier-cam/). Otherwise, Tampa Bay delivered its familiar challenges: square waves, shifty winds, and seaweed patches.

From the results, it looks like Ernesto Rodrigues/Eddie Mintzias have it all figured out, but what they have is the speed to come back when needed. Otherwise only nine points separate 2nd from 8th place, and with five more races planned over the next two days there’s a lot more work to do.

After happy hour at the tiki bar, the fleet enjoyed a grill night dinner on the front deck of the St. Petersburg Yacht Club.

Saturday dawned with no wind, and stayed that way all day robbing the fleet of any chance of racing. To try and get back on schedule the Race Committee moved up the start time for Sunday morning.

In spite of the race committee’s best attempts (and the fleet sitting through a quick rainstorm), the breeze never stabilized enough to complete any additional racing on Sunday, so Friday’s results stand. Congratulations to Florida State champions Ernesto Rodriguez and Eddie Mintzias, who have earned the right to go to the 2016 Western Hemisphere and Orient Championship in Cabo Frio, Brazil!

Winter 2016

Month Date Event HostJan 23-24 Gaspar Regatta St Petersburg YCJan 23-24 Las Vegas Regatta Mission Bay YCJan 30-31 Comodoro Rasco Miami, Coconut Grove SCFeb 27-28 Georgia State Championship Valdosta YC, Lake Park, GAMarch 13-15 Midwinters Clearwater, FloridaMarch 18-20 50th Don Q Rum Keg Miami, Coconut Grove SCMarch 27-28 Ironman Regatta Birmingham SC, Birmingham, ALApril 9-10 Earl Elms Memorial Regatta Mission Bay YCMay 7 Ron Payne Memorial Ocean Race Lauderdale YC, Ft. Lauderdale, FLMay 21-22 Herb Shear Memorial Mission Bay YCMay 29 Goombay Regatta Miami, Coconut Grove SCJune 3-5 North Americans/Colonial Cup Severn SA, Annapolis, MDJune 11-12 Atlantic Coast Championships Surf City YC, Surf City, NJJune 18-19 Jr Atlantic Coast Champs Severn SA, Annapolis, MDJune 25-26 Whittemore St John Quassapaug SC, Middlebury, CTJuly 9-10 Winchester Invitational Winchester BC, Winchester, MAAugust 7-8 Make-a-Wish Cottage Pare YC, Winthrop, MAAugust 13-14 Oxford One Design Oxford, MDAugust 20-21 Briody Newport YC, Rochester, NYAugust 27-28 Board of Governors Quassapaug SC, Middlebury, CTSept 3-4 Florida Juniors Coconut Grove SC, Miami, FLSept 14-17 US Nationals Rush Creek YC, Rockwall, TXSept 17-18 Mystic Lake Open Medford BC, Medford, MAOct 1-2 Frigid Digit Severn SA, Annapolis, MDOct 15-16 Southerns Birmingham SC, Birmingham, ALOct 29-30 Halloween Regatta Atlanta YC, Acworth, GAOct 29-30 Carolyn Nute Memorial Mission Bay YC

SCIRA US Racing Calendarwww.snipeusa.com

SCIRA USA Gift Membership Program

Membership is good for the class as well as for new Snipers. So how about giving a year’s membership to your crew or interested junior or friend as a year-end holiday gift? It is simple and sure to be remembered all year long with each Snipe Bulletin. And by clicking on the box when on-line

ordering, the recipient will receive a card notifying him/her of the gift. It’s a great way to help spread the joy of serious

sailing, serious fun! https://snipeusa.com/joinrenew-online/