Gene Fleming, Francis Seavy’s nephew, sent out the following obituary of this longtime Snipe sailor and class sparkplug.

The family has generously directed donations in Francis’ honor to go to Pinellas County Heritage Society for the boat shop project, or to the Snipe Class International Racing Association.

Seavy, Francis A. 91, of Clearwater, died on Sunday, March 17, 2013.  Francis was an avid competitive sailor, woodworker and musician.  Born in Jacksonville, Florida, he was the son of George Seavy (Mayor of Clearwater from 1941-1946) and Lucie Strother Seavy who moved to Clearwater when Francis was a young child.  He worked for the family business, Seavy Lumber Company, and later for Morgan Yacht in St. Petersburg and Ross Yacht in Clearwater.  As a little boy, Francis made a boat out of whatever he could find and taught himself to sail in the protected bayou across the street from his family’s home.  Upon returning from service in Africa during WWII, he hit the competitive sailing circuit.  Skilled in all types of sailing, Francis was best known for racing Snipes – particularly Honey, a boat created specifically for him by local boat building legend Clark Mills. 

19 snipes competed for the 44th Annual Comodoro Rasco Snipe Regatta, hosted by the Coconut Grove Sailing Club and the Miami Snipe Fleet # 7 and sailed February 2-3, 2013.

Ernesto Rodriguez/Hillary Noble tied with Peter Commette/Bruno Mello, but the tie breaker gave Ernesto and Hillary the Championship!  It was a real battle between these two with Kevin and Ashley Reali getting in there, participating in the tough competition and finishing in third place.  The AICARDI TROPHY was awarded this time to the most accomplished skipper, the young  Andre Guaragna with his father crewing for him. The greatest accomplishment is surviving his father, Andre is the coolest guy I have ever seen!! Keep and eye on Andre he will be a top Snipe sailor!

By Carol Cronin (Where Books meet Boats)

A Rod Davis article in the latest Seahorse Magazine got me thinking: why is it that from the outside, mid-life passion looks like mid-life crisis?
Rod recently bought an OK dinghy to get back to having fun on the water. As one of the top coaches in sailing, he spends most of his time watching other people sail. In a blog post on Sail-World, he said it was time "to sail and race for myself, you know, just because it's a super fun thing to do."

The Comodoro Rasco starts Saturday, Feb 2, 2013. The NOR and Sailing Instructions are now available on the Coconut Grove Sailing Club's website. See you there!

[This post originally appeared on Where Books Meet Boats.]

USA 30860 is packed up for the winter, headed to the Jibetech “Spa” for her annual fluff and buff. Who knows, she may even consent to a pedicure… but I doubt it. And now that the last regatta of the season is behind us, it’s time to look back on 2012 and see if the Cronin Sailing Team achieved our goals. In 2011, my Snipe teammate Kim Couranz and I went to Denmark for the Snipe World Championship—the first time in seventy years that a women’s team had qualified from the U.S. It felt momentous, and we put a lot of time and effort and money into doing the best we could at that one event. It was also a chance to show off the logo of our longtime sponsor, WAMIT, to some fresh eyes in northern Europe. And even though we didn’t make the first (or second) page of the results, it was all worth it.

SCIRA USA reports:
"At a recent PanAm Board of Directors conference call it was determined that the same classes that sailed in the 2011 PanAm Games will sail in the 2015 PanAm Games in Toronto. This means the Snipe Class has been reinstated in the PanAm Games." Stay tuned for further updates.

Here are some images sent in by Arturo Marin of the Snipe ManuTara in Valparaiso Harbour, Chile. Angela Herrera, skipper and Gladys Kraft crew.

We have just received word that the Pan American sailing Federation met last weekend and released the minutes of their meeting. It seems that they decided that for the 2015 Pan Am Games to be held in Toronto Canada, the Snipe has been replaced by the 49er.

This is a major blow to the Snipe sailors in the Western Hemisphere. We hope this decision is not final and the SCIRA Board of Governors is planning a response to best present reasons why the Snipe, the only class to have been in ALL PAN AM GAMES should be retained.

The announcement can be viewed at http://panamsailing.org/report-to-the-pasaf-member-national-authorities/

More will be communicated as soon as we have more information.

Don Bedford

SCIRA Commodore

Snipe and Pan Am Games

Editor's Note: Riley Hall, a student at the International Yacht and Restoration School in Newport, Rhode Island, spent his winter nights and weekends rebuilding an old Snipe. Here's his update.

I took my Snipe out sailing for the first time today. It was a blast, and the rainy, stiff northerly made for an epic maiden voyage.