I've owned three Snipes. The 15 foot centerboard sloop designed by William F Crosby is the world's most successful one design racing class. Prompted by a daily Instagram feed from the Portuguese Snipe class I bit again. My newly purchased 30 year old San Diego built McLaughlin Snipe is #28,199. I sailed one as a boy on Long Island's South Oyster Bay - from 7th grade until I headed off to India in the Peace Corps in 1967. I bought another woodie built by Gerber Boatworks on City Island with a $1,000 from my first jury trial win in 1979. I sailed that one out of the silted in Lighthouse Boat Club in North Bergen, NJ opposite the 79th Street boat basin.
The class is active and vigorous as these winners in the Snipe World Championships just held in Ilhabela, Brazil are demonstrating.
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| #28,199 waiting for spring. |
