Snipe Droppings

Report from Fleet 495 Mission Bay – by Snooley

It has been a very strange winter, with some of the coldest runs of weather we have see in many years. We were fortunate to have the Las Vegas Regatta January 19-20 sailed under beautiful, warm, sunny So Cal skies.

20 teams came out for this event, but it was the Dave Tilson/Doug Hart show once again as these two teams continue to dominate the local events. Ian Brill was up front for Dave and Ryan Hopps for Hart, and it came down to the last race with Tilson winning. Besides the great weather and decent breezes, the biggest factor lately in local Snipe racing is the number of juniors we have coming out to join us. Whether it is crewing or steering, we are seeing increasing numbers of Juniors joining us.

This is a very good thing that I hope continues. The other modern twist to this regatta are the professionals that run the casino night. Gone are the days of the Snipe Fleet setting up late Friday nights, sailing all day and then running the gambling events with a long night of clean-up before calling it a day. OK. I do miss Leweck calling the horse races and stuff like that, but to be able to sail all day, gamble all night and be home by 10:30 is a good thing at this point in life. The new Las Vegas Regatta/Night is quick, easy, classy and a lot of fun. Hopefully, we raised lots of money for the juniors while we were at it. BTW, thanks to Roger Patterson and crew for a great effort on race committee. They did a great job and it was refreshing to see an RC that wasn’t fixated on the north end of the bay where you so frequently see RC’s box themselves and the fleets in.

The other event to date early here in the New Year was the 2013 Snipe Golf Challenge. This was the 24th edition of the event which started in 1990 as a way to get everyone together early in the year in a non-sailing fun event. 50 teams showed up with early morning temperatures in the 40’s but still, a nice day for early February. The Lomas Santa Fe Executive Course was the venue, as usual, and nobody got hurt. Well, not exactly, as Blaine Lewis was dropped by his sister on a screaming shot somewhere south of his belly button. It happens! Scores were a little higher than usual, but that didn’t stop Jamie Hoffman and Kaz Fujita (friend and crew of Nobu Nakagaki) who both shot a 2 over 58. Ties, as usual, are settled at MBYC in a putt-off on the “fast” carpet in the main clubhouse. There were many of them, and everyone seemed to have a good time both on the golf course and at the club for prizes. We are trying to come up with a formula this summer which includes 9 holes of golf at Sail Ho in the am followed by a one day regatta at MBYC in the pm where all scores count. Anyone got a good formula for that?

Looks like great weather for Snipe sailors heading out for the Mid-winters here in the ocean off MBYC Feb. 16-17. We are due for some warm weather and how lucky to have it this weekend! That is two warm weather regattas in a row for the dead of winter. Not bad!

For March, it looks like the fleet captain has March 24th as our next regatta. This will be a Short Course event and we should have lots of boats out for that one. The Snipe North Americans Regatta is early this year, in Houston April 19-21. I remember when we would all travel to these things, so hopefully a few will still get out there and let us know what is happening in the Snipe World away from the West Coast.