Sailing in Europe vs Japan

by Haruna Egawa

From the Snipe Bulletin – Spring 2023

During my trip to Europe in 2022, I participated in two Snipe events: the Northwest Championship at Budworth Sailing Club, UK, and the Marlin Spike Rum Cup at Galgenweel Lake, Belgium. I found the trip to Europe fascinating and would like to share you some Snipe sailing differences I discovered and experienced between Japan and Europe. 

Before embarking on my trip, I contacted the SCIRA Commodore Zbi Rakocy to ask if there was anyone in the UK he could recommend I contact to see if I could go Snipe sailing. He kindly put me in touch with Sue Roberts, the SCIRA Treasurer and UK Membership secretary. Without his help I would never have had such a great experience, so thank you Commodore Rakocy.

I would like to express my gratitude to both Sue Roberts and her family for welcoming and supporting me during my entire trip. Sue managed to find me crewing positions which enabled me to join in with the two Snipe regattas. I would like to give a special thanks to both Patrick Sarsfield (UK) and Yannick Laumans (BEL) for letting me sail with them, especially since they had never even met me!  I would also like to thank all the people I met at the regattas, including race committee members and everyone who helped me have such an amazing experience. The Snipe sailing that I took part in Europe is quite different from that in Japan and below are some of the main differences I noticed:

Members of all ages enjoy sailing

As is the case with other sports clubs, many sailing clubs are organized on a local basis run by volunteers. People of all ages have the opportunity to go sailing, sometimes with family, sometimes with a partner or friends. At Budworth Sailing Club Roland Antonelli was competing and was also celebrating his 90^thbirthday! This is uncommon in Snipe Japan since most of Japanese SCIRA members belongs to the university team, so that once they graduate from university, not many of them continue to sail in the Snipe class. I personally feel, given the tremendous number of SCIRA members in Japan, that it is a shame that Snipe sailing is not very accessible outside of university clubs. Perhaps we have a stereotype that a hiking-out is too physically demanding for the elderly, but this time I realized that Snipe sailing is essentially a sport which can be enjoyed even when we get older.

Each club has a bar!

In Europe, you may not think that having a bar at the clubhouse is something special, but in Japan it is! As mentioned earlier, most clubs are managed by universities, and they do not own facilities such as bars. I found that having the place like bars or restaurants at the sailing club enables sailors to socialize during a series of races. Having this close community makes long lasting friendships both locally and when you visit the clubs. Everyone chats about the day of racing and shares stories over a drink and dinner – it makes people want to return as they have had a good time both on and off the water. I have made many new friends because of the time I had with people after the sailing finished. Some of the club members encouraged me to try various brands of Belgian beers and local cuisines! If you come to Japan to join a regatta, we can go to Izakaya (pub) instead. You will still have a very good time, but it will just be a little different! 

Open to sailors from other continents

At the Marlin Spike Rum Cup in Belgium, there were sailors from Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, Italy, UK, France and even Norway. I heard competitors chatting;sometimes in English, sometimes in Flemish, or French depending on whom they were talking to. As for me, although I was the only Japanese person attending, but I felt very comfortable. There were so many foreign visitors I very much felt part of the event – I was another foreign Snipe sailor who was made to feel very welcome. 

In Japan, this kind of interaction with Snipe sailors visiting from abroad is rare, except when we host high level regattas such as the Worlds, WHA or Master events. At Olympic level, sailors tend to stay within their camps and interact less. 

Snipe sailing, it would appear, is quite unique at being a very sociable class and one very large family as I experienced in both the UK and Belgium. In Japan, we are partly limited due to geographical reasons and because of financial issues; many Japanese Snipe sailors are students which limits their ability to travel.

I was very fortunate to be able to travel to Europe and I really hope that one day it will become easier for more and more Japanese students to be able to travel, have amazing experiences and meet and become friends with other Snipe sailors around the World, in the same way that I did.