2021 Snipe Nationals
After pausing for a year for the pandemic to subside, SSA and Snipe Fleet 532 held the rescheduled Snipe Nationals on June 16-20. It was a glorious 5 days, the first day for measurement and four days of great sailing. The conditions were spectacular but challenging with breeze mostly from the southerly directions and quite lumpy even during the week. We had three days (Thursday, Saturday, Sunday) of light-ish (5-12knots) breeze and one day (Friday) of champagne Chesapeake sailing (12-17 knots) . PRO Steve Podlich completed 9 or 10 scheduled races as the third race on Saturday was abandoned due to a 90 degree wind shift on the first lap.
As is typical these days, the “Miami Snipe Mafia” dominated the top 5 spots (of 52) and the two 2022 Snipe World Championship slots. Right on their heels was Tyler Mowry/Izzy Fadullon, the top placing SSA boat in 6th. The rest of the SSA fleet was sprinkled down the scoresheet (13, 14, 18, 20, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 33, 3446, 48, 52). Full results are archived on the SSA results web page.
The racing was extremely tight at every mark rounding and often after 50 minutes of racing, the top 10-20 boats would all come to the finish in a huge pack after 5 windward/leeward legs! No position anywhere in the fleet was ever “safe” as one small mistake could be costly regardless of where you were on the course.
Tight mark rounding were very tough especially when the current was rippin’.
We of course have an outstanding set of volunteers for race committee, but also from the fleet to staff the various teams (measurement, registration, awards et al). While some of the off the water social activities were driven by the conditions of the pandemic - the planning was mostly done prior to the successful vaccination state we had during the event - the regatta was very much tailored to fit the strengths of the SSA venue. We structured the social activities such that sailors would hang out at SSA after racing and then head out in town on their own for dinner later. Botanas Fajardo did a fantastic job providing drinks from an upstairs bar (no waiting!!) as well as regatta provided appetizers. As part of the registration, each team was provided a set of drink tickets that were redeemable at the upstairs bar (or downstairs window) instead of regatta provided kegs as many have done in the past for large regattas. This gives competitors a wide choice of beverages and is very easy to manage from both the organizer and provider standpoints.
Lisa Pline did a great job of organizing the fleet to execute the regatta, making her second appearance as nationals regatta chair 30 years after the first.
Lisa Pline was the regatta chair at the 1990 Snipe Nationals and returned to do it again 30 (31!) years later.
This may have been one of the most media covered regattas at SSA in recent history using a variety of media types and outlets.
Kim Couranz did a great job with daily writeups on our blog and PR to social media as well as other sailing outlets like Scuttlebutt:
Ted Morgan was on the water taking fantastic pictures:
Ted Morgan’s “money shot” of one of the very tight mark roundings.
Click to view a photo gallery of the 700 images over four days.
We were also fortunate to receive a grant from CBYRA to hire T2P to video racing all four days. They produced a daily video of racing action and a final Wrap Up video including interviews.
Video playlist of T2PTV’s daily videos.
You can also check out additional interview videos on the USA Snipe Class Facebook Page, including our own Henry Filter: