Commodore’s Log Book

By Don Bedford, SCIRA Commodore.

As the Snipe sailing season gets going I have had a great deal of correspondence from many sailors and fleets. Here in San Diego (USA) we are lucky enough to sail all year long and we have been very active in rejuvenating our fleet.

As I spoke of last time, I feel the fleet is the heart of Snipe sailing. It is where people interact with each other. While SCIRA and each National Secretary can help with commonalities like rules, major regattas and membership, it is the fleets that have a real effect at keeping small boat racing alive and encouraging new people to join in our races. Yes, I feel the fleet captain and those who organize the fleets have the biggest impact on if Snipes are a success or not.

I’ve hear of fleets in Italy, Spain, Poland, the US, Brazil and many other countries that all have different challenges at building their fleets. I can tell the your SCIRA Board of Governors are very interested in helping countries and fleets in promoting Snipe racing. Please feel free to speak to your National Secretary or reach or to a member or the Board to tell them what works for you fleet or what you think would benefit sailing in your area.

Also, I would like to pass along that the Technical Committee is looking at the rule changes approved in 2011. We look to clarify our rules to be sure that the SCIRA rules are intended to work with the ISAF rules to only change every four years. We need to first get the ISAF rule changes and confirm our rule changes are not in conflict; then we plan to be able to roll them out in 2013 with the new ISAF rules. The Technical Committee is forming the intent of the Board changes from last year into specific rules changes that would be implemented in our rule book. We weigh the balance of improving the boat while not wishing to unduly disrupt those sailing at the local level. We have had great success with gradual rule changes but that is the task of the Technical Committee each four years.

Lastly, please send in your dues as soon as you can. This help each country to qualify more boats to international regattas as well as help to keep our operations running smoothly. If it was not for SCIRA we would not have a common set of rules to measure and sail by and, well, our boats would certainly but of much lesser value. Thank you for you support.

And, I hope to see you on the water,

-don