The Commodore’s Log Book

Hello Snipe Sailors!

In the northern hemisphere we are at the height of the competitive season: many national championships have already been held as well as a successful World Masters in Vilamoura, Portugal.

In particular, this regatta was a successful event with 77 participants from 15 nations. The race area of Vilamoura gave the sailors every day different and challenging conditions, with current, different wind strengths. In the end, the Spaniards Damian Borras and Jordi Triay dominated the series with 5 bullets out of 7 races. The organization on and off the water was very good. I think everyone had fun, both at sea and on land with social events. For me, as often happens with the Snipe regattas, it was possible to meet old friends and make new ones.

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Friendship and respect for the opponent is a fundamental aspect for the Master Worlds, where the “Serious Fun” part of our motto is placed before the “Serious Sailing”. The spirit of the event was understood by almost everyone. In other parts of this Snipe Bulletin you will find reports, rankings and photos of this and other regattas.

Other important events like the Women’s World Championship, the Open European Championship and the Western Hemisphere & Orient Championship await us in the coming months. I hope to see many of you at these Championships.

During the last few months the Board has monitored the progress of the membership, comparing it with the past years. We have noticed that, in some countries, the Class is in strong recovery, thanks above all to the enthusiasm of the Fleet Captains and the National Secretaries. In some countries we have seen that in addition to the normal activities of organizing the regattas, World Snipe Days have been organized to make known and promote the Class to those who are not Snipe sailors. In other countries Clinics have been organized for those who already know the Snipe and want to improve their way of sailing Snipes. Other countries have bought or chartered construction yards to make them available free to sailors who want to try sailing a Snipe. All these initiatives are to be emulated: they serve to give liveliness to fleet activity. We do not have to stay still, each of us can make a practical contribution to the fleet activity. Let me know what is organized in your fleet, because it’s nice that everyone knows what’s happening on the other side of the world.

In a world political situation, where nations are increasingly trying to close and isolate themselves, SCIRA is in reverse trend! The initiatives of international racing circuits are very nice: I personally participated at (and helped to organize) the Alpe Adria Region Snipe Circuit (aka Kaiser Franz Joseph Cup and Kaiserin Sissi), with regattas in Austria, Italy Croatia, but with participation of crews also from other Countries. In other Countries (for example Spain and Portugal) teams usually comes from neighboring countries or even from Northern Europe. And excellent sailors (I think of our Vice-Commodore Luis Soubie, Damian Borras) often move to other countries to hold clinics. All this makes our class truly international!

See you soon, on the race course!