Levinson Brothers (USA)

The Levinson brothers, Frank, Alan “Buzz”, and Harry were significant contributors to the Snipe class for nearly their entire lives.

Frank was the first Snipe sailor in the Levinson family, sailing FAH (Frank Alan Harry) #1829 on Lake Wawasee in Indiana. After FAH, Frank sailed Hoosier Miss #3303 on Lake Wawasee and traveled to Diamond Lake, Michigan, and other lakes around the Great Lakes Region as District 3 was first known. In both FAH and Hoosier Miss, Frank introduced and taught his brothers Alan and Harry how to sail the Snipe. He first had them crew for him and then he taught them the finer points of skippering and racing. In 1954 Frank moved to Clearwater, Florida, after discovering it during a trip to a Midwinters Regatta. Frank took on a leadership role in the regatta making it a desirable event with well-run races and a strong social component. In 1955, Frank and his partner, boat builder Clark Mills, bought a rundown marina where they collaborated on developing the Mills plywood Snipe. Frank sailed Mills #8692 for many years. While in Florida, Frank and his wife Joan spent a lot of time with sailmaker Guy Roberts and his wife Ruth. Often, the sail making process was the topic of conversation. Before long all the furniture in the Levinson living room was cleared and Frank and Joan laid out their first Snipe sails with masking tape on the living room floor. This eventually grew into Levinson Sails. Frank always took a sewing machine to the major regattas to help, for free, repairing sails or changing numbers, regardless of whether they were his sails or not. Frank was an innovator beyond the sails. The first aluminum masts from Proctor, and later Cobra, revolutionized Snipes but Frank saw the need for a lighter and bendier mast section for the Snipe. In the 1970’s he started experimenting with the Needle Spar mast, a section similar to what he used in his Flying Dutchman. While this particular section did not take off in the Snipe class, the Cobra II was introduced shortly afterward, validating Frank’s intuition. 

Alan “Buzz” was a tireless promoter of sailing, spending most of his life helping others get started in the Snipe class. In 1940, when older brother Frank was 15, Buzz was already skippering his own Snipe at 10 years old. Buzz served as Commodore of the Snipe class in 1959. Buzz and his wife Winnie placed second at the Nationals. This qualified him for the Western Hemispheres, which he raced with Dick Tillman as his crew. Alan played a leading role in starting the Indianapolis Sailing Club on Geist Reservoir. Buzz, along with others such as Bud Hook, promoted the Snipe class at ISC, which eventually grew to one of the largest Snipe fleets in the world in the 1970s. Much of this growth came by Buzz providing hefty discounts on his lightly used Snipes to encourage new fleet members. Buzz skippered with Harry as crew in the 1967 Pan American Games, where they took silver in the Snipe. As an innovator Buzz worked with Indianapolis boat builders Gene Lemke and John Call on innovations. The most notable innovation was lowering the centerboard trunk to create a self-bailing Snipe. Gene Lemke made a Snipe for Buzz with the lower centerboard trunk and then provided a piece that could be added to make it conform to the old/existing rules. Buzz took the boat to regattas all summer selling the idea. Buzz always believed that the people of the Snipe class were what made it such a great class. To help preserve some of that history, Buzz solicited and then compiled (and censored) “Snipe Tales”, a collection of many dozens of stories told by the early sailors of the Snipe class. 

Harry, the younger of the three brothers, learned how to sail from Frank and Buzz at Lake Wawasee in Indiana. Harry helped Buzz develop the Snipe fleet in Indianapolis. Harry, sailing the Clark Mills plywood Snipe #12192, was a three-time US National Champion in 1960, 1961, and 1965, winning his first two titles with Buzz. Harry and Buzz placed second twice at the Worlds and fourth at the 1960 Western Hemisphere Championship. The two Levinsons also teamed up successfully for the Winter Circuit and Bermuda Race Week. Harry and his wife Alinda moved to Switzerland in 1985 but kept up with Snipe sailing by borrowing boats for regattas at Broadstairs, UK and at Le Harve, France. All three of these Levinsons were instrumental in passing down the love of sailing to their children, nieces and nephews, and grandchildren.