Snipe Worlds – Plotting the Course – Episode 2 - SnipeToday

From the Origins to Mahon

We continue our story on the Snipe World Championship following the first episode published yesterday.

In this series, we take a look back at the Snipe World Championships of the past. Rather than offering an exhaustive historical record or focusing solely on final results, our main focus is on the stories—wherever possible, as told by the sailors who lived them.

In this episode, we look back at the Snipe Internationals (as the Snipe World Championship was known at the time) held before World War II.

To bring this era to life, we publish a story originally featured in the collection “Snipe Tales,” written by Walt Hall.

The Snipe Class Championship Before World War II

by Walt Hall

In 1931, we were in the midst of the Great Depression, and sailors needed an inexpensive sailboat that could be trailed. Bill Crosby, the Editor of Rudder Magazine, designed the Snipe. Snipe racing became so popular and widespread that the Snipe Class International Racing Association (SCIRA) was formed in 1932. In 1934, Commodore Hub E. Isaacks donated a trophy for the first Snipe International Championship, sailed on Long Island Sound.

Outer Los Angeles Harbor, California

Five years later, the Championship was scheduled for the West Coast, and we knew that Snipe then was the largest one-design sailboat racing class in the world. My brother, Bob, and I had bought Snipe #544 in late 1937, and raced it in the 1938 and 1939 regatta circuits organized by the Small Boat Racing Association of Northern California. Five skippers trailed Snipes south for the 1939 Internationals at Los Angeles Yacht Club on August 25, 26, and 27. In preliminary trial racing around the harbor, Darby Metcalf in his Varalyay-built Darb #3222 raced Bob and me in Melody #544 with mainsails only and beat us handily; but, then he offered to trade boats. We did, and beat him by about the same margin.

I think Freddy Schenck was watching this and, after being kept out of the Championship by a rule that allowed only one boat per fleet and a combination of circumstances and local politics best articulated by Freddy, loaned us his Varalyay-built Grey Goose #3456. We had just received the latest sails by Kenny Watts in time to break them in before the racing thanks to the expediting efforts of Steve Bechtel. We had ordered them with maximum dimensions and camber. Freddy’s boat with Kenny Watts’ latest sail was a joy to sail. It felt like nothing we had ever sailed. We had suddenly dropped 50 pounds.

The first race started with us in clear air. The fleet split into two groups so we positioned ourselves half way between them. We got a big lift to barely lay the first mark. The port side had to fall off and the starboard side had to tack. Then the worst thing for the fleet astern happened: Just after we rounded, the wind velocity suddenly increased. We started to plane downwind just trying to round the first marker under flogging sails. We won that first race by over six minutes!

The next few races we sailed more carefully and also became the focus of some attention by our competitors. Roy Hopkins, sailing a new Douglas Snipe, Malicious #2097 won the second race, was dismasted in the third race, and won the fourth race. Darby Metcalf in Darb #3222 won the third race and then struck a marker in the fourth race.

For the final race, Bob and I needed a fourth to win the Championship. We got to the last marker close behind Darby. As he rounded up to give us dirty air, we broke through his lee and worked slowly up until he was forced to tack to port. We held our course and the fleet followed us now that we had the lead. Only Roy Hopkins followed Darby out on starboard tack. All we had to do was hold our position ahead of the bulk of the fleet, even if Darby and Roy had the better course. They sailed way out on what I thought was a wild gamble, but they caught a fresh breeze that I later learned was expected locally. Darby came in first, Roy second, but we held off the rest of the fleet for a third. That was enough to give us the highest score, the Hub E. Isaacks Trophy, great joy of accomplishment, and memories for a lifetime.

Our good fortune depended heavily on Freddy Schenck’s generosity in loaning us his new boat. (Rudder Magazine published its report on the Championship in its October 1939 edition, which is appended.)

Lake Canandaigua, New York

In 1940, Darby Metcalf, with Freddy Schenck as crew, took his new Varalyay-built Snipe Ghost to Lake Canandaigua Yacht Club for the Snipe Internationals on August 29, 30, and 31. With two firsts and a second, he won the Championship. Ted Varalyay from Los Angeles, with his brother Louis as crew, placed second with a first, third, and eighth. Don Cochran of Florida was third.

Eagle Mountain Lake, Texas

In 1941, Snipe Internationals were sailed near Fort Worth, Texas on August 25, 26, and 27. The first race was sailed in light air. John T. Hayward from Tulsa, Oklahoma won. Bill Jackson from Oakland, California was second. Darby Metcalf was sixth.

The second race was in heavy wind. Darby in another new Varalyay Snipe Satan, with his crew George Lounsberry, romping in the high wind, left us all. Bill Jackson in his Jackson-built Poison had a lead on the fleet by as much as Darby had on him when his jib halyard failed and he dropped out. Darby won by a big margin.

The third race was sailed in an even stronger wind. Steve Bechtel, Jr. from Oakland, California, who had just turned 16, had won the Junior Championship of the United States in the series held in conjunction with the Internationals. The wind was so strong that Steve decided to go three-up for this last race. When Bill Jackson dropped out, I became available as an extra crew. Steve put me on the main and Bob on the jib, so he could focus on steering and tactics.

Once again, Darby at 175 pounds and George Lounsberry at 205 pounds took off and left the fleet. Steve had some boats ahead at the start, but in this heavy wind we slowly and steadily overhauled each boat one-by-one. We finally passed Ted Varalyay as we rounded the last marker and cranked upwind for a second place behind Darby. Ted Varalyay was third.

That was also the order of finish for the regatta. Darby had won his second World Snipe Championship!

Perry Bass, the 1935 Snipe World Champion, 1941 Commodore of SCIRA, and Regatta Chairman for the Championship, presented the Hub E. Isaacks Trophy to Darby Metcalf and the Valspar Trophy to Steve Bechtel, Jr.

Less than 3 1/2 months later, Pearl Harbor was attacked and we were in World War II. Many of us went into the military service.

Racing for the Hub E. Isaacks Trophy was suspended during the War years 1943 and 1944.

— Walt Hall

(From the book “Snipe Tales”, written by a Great Group of Snipe Sailors – edited and censored by Buzz Levinson – 1996)

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