Jacksonville, April 21-22, 2012.

Florida Yacht Club in Jacksonville hosted the 2012 Snipe Tea Party and District 4 Championships.  After 7 races in everything from a light drifter, to waves and sea breeze, to flat water and oscillating breeze, Chris Klotz and Bobby Guilder came out on top.  Chris and Bobby (local FYC junior sailor) never finished out of the top 3 and that consistency took them to the top of the fleet.  In the first race, Hal and Emily Gilreath ghosted to a win in a light breeze passing David Muhlhaussen and Barb Evans up the last beat.  A 10-15 knot sea breeze kicked in for the afternoon and David and Barb ended up tied after 4 races with Chris and Bobby.  The compact races placed an emphasis on starts and crew work in the building breeze and waves.  Saturday night the fleet retired to an Italian buffet as a front moved through.

Day 2 of the DonQ offered similar conditions to day one: 9-15 knots of NE that rewarded staying in the pressure. With one race to go, Augie Diaz/Kathleen Tocke (Miami, USA) are tied for first with Raul Rios/Manuel Insern (PUR), and Bruno Bethlem/Dante Bianchi (BRA) are only 2 points behind. Full Results

Clearwater Yacht Club

March 12-14, 2012

Thirty-one Snipes from Europe, South America, and North America attended the 2012 Snipe Midwinters, one of the best attended and most international events in several years. Clearwater Yacht Club has run this event for seventy-six years, making it the oldest Snipe regatta in North America (and possibly the world).

The first half of the three day, eight race series was sailed in a shifty offshore easterly that gradually faded off from its first peak of 12-15 knots. In the afternoon on day two a moderate seabreeze filled for the final race, and two races on the last day were sailed in a 10-14 knot northwesterly which rewarded boatspeed upwind and downwind.

Ernesto Rodriguez/Megan Place posted such consistent finishes that even an OCS in the last race couldn’t keep them from winning the event. Kevin Reali and Tim King (St. Pete, FL) managed to stay within three points of the leaders, even after they lost a tiller extension halfway through the last race. Emanuel Aghem and Luciano Pesci from Argentina rounded out the top three.

The second stop on the Snipe Circuit is Miami’s DonQ Regatta, which runs March 16-18. Thirty-five boats from eight countries are registered to date.

Top five:
1. Ernesto Rodriguez/Megan Place 16

2. Kevin Reali/Tim King 19

3. Emanuel Aghem/Luciano Pesci 39

4. Arthur Blodgett/Julia Melton 47

5. Carol Cronin/Kim Couranz 50

Full results

Another lovely day on the Gulf of Mexico. We sailed two races in the morning offshore breeze and it faded hard by the end of the second race, rewarding those who rolled the dice and found the errant puffs. After a short wait, a light seabreeze filled in from the west providing some great boat speed sailing for the final race of the day. Full results below do not yet reflect a throwout. Regatta website

Peter Commette and Alex Commette