SCIRA Commodore: An Open Letter to the Class

by Don Bedford 07/26/2012

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 It seems that they decided that for the 2015 Pan Am Games to be held in Toronto Canada, the Snipe has been replaced by the 49er.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

Gordon Richards

07/26/2012 - 21:26:09

I am very concerned that those nations we thought were supportive of the snipe program for the betterment of sailing world wide have let us down with this decision. Those countries represented at this vote were Canada, Canada, USA, Mexico, URG, and Per;
Not represented were AHO and DOM from the executive. These country representatives should explain thier actions - How can they support this decision when many of the PAn countries don't sail the boats proposed in sufficient numbers to represent the sailing effort of the Pan AM countries?
The IOC also has away too much influence over the direction that the Pans have taken. If we all line up under the Olympic banner then there will be only a very few who can sail in strong compeditive levels inside of the Olympian ideals This is not good for sport of Sailing in general !