2022 SCIRA Decals
The 2022 decals are here! Please join SCIRA or renew your membership!
The history of our Class is also the story of the decals that have been chosen by the Commodores in charge and have been shown on the starboard side of the Snipes over the years.
SCIRA decals from 1972 to today (courtesy of Jose Carlos Alegria Diaz)
Why Join the Snipe Class Association?
By Jerelyn Biehl
Sailors constantly ask, “Why Should I Join SCIRA?”
Below we’ve outlined the many reasons to support this 85 year old Association.
Let’s be clear:
Your International SCIRA dues are as follows:
- Junior: $10
- Senior: $15
- Boat decal: $10
SCIRA Int. has kept the dues low to assist your national associations if they feel the need add a fee to help run their
national office. But let’s breakdown why you need to support your Snipe Class.
Benefits of a Strong Class Association
- A strong class association means lots of boats to race against, near you and around the world!
- A strong class association with lots of racing attracts the world’s best sailors – giving you the best racing possible!
- A strong class association means major events scheduled at the best sailing locations and moving all over the continental regions – there will always be a big event near you!
- A strong class association means solid class rules making all boats as identical as possible – you are competing against other sailors, not their check books!
- A strong class association means lots of people looking to buy boats keeping the resale value of your boat high.
- A strong class association keeps an eye towards the future and works with the builders to make improvements where needed while preserving as well as possible the compettiveness of older boats
To be strong, a class association needs the support of its sailors!
What are some of the direct benefits of membership?
- You receive the Snipe Rulebook with the current class rules, class constitution, international Deeds of Gift & history, guidelines for events, contact information for your country and class officers
- You receive the Snipe Bulletin, the quarterly publication which gives a wrap-up of international events sailed around the world as well as information from the international officers and office.
- You will have access to the class website containing all the latest news as well as an up-to-date calendar of events. Regional and country websites are also listed and you can access archived copies fo the Snipe Bulletin as well as useful articles on how to rig and sail your boat faster.
- Your membership makes you eligible to sail in any of the 100+ major Snipe Class regattas scheduled every year throughout the world, including open, masters, youth and women’s events.
You get direct benefit by joining the Snipe Class!
What does SCIRA do with your membership dues?
- The first $5 of your dues go to pay the SCIRA office staff who work incredibly hard to: make sure our events get scheduled every year and that these events follow the high standards of the Snipe Class, ensuring all the boats are the same by complying with Class rules, keeping track of rules change proposals, and interfacing with World Sailing on various levels. and to have a knowledgeable person available to answer a question by phone or email.
- A little over $5 goes to the quarterly assembling, printing & mailing of the Snipe Bulletin and the Rulebook every four years.
- Around $1 goes to support promotion, ranging from stickers, decals, merchandise & the website.
- Most of the remaining $4 goes to all the things it takes to run an organization of 3000 members, from some travel cost, class measurement support all the way to mundane office expenses.
Your meberships dues are used to keep the Snipe as THE doublehanded dinghy to sail and race throughout the world!
Why should you join SCIRA?
- To enable the Snipe Class to remain a strong class association and continue to make the Snipe the pre-eminent doublehanded dinghy of our time.
- To gain the benefits of membership outlined above
- To protect your investment in your boat, making sure that if the time comes to sell then you can be certain that the high demand driven by a strong class will enagle you to get the best price for your boat.
SCIRA is what it is today because of the support of its members. Keep that tradition alive, join or renew your membership today!
Why it is so important to be SCIRA member
by Pietro Fantoni
This is not meant to be a sermon. But an invitation to reflect.
The Board likes to see that there are many races with so many boats around the world. But it would most like to see that all the sailors are members in good standing with the Class Association. Also it would like to see that all the National Secretaries enforce the membership rule.
SCIRA … Association, asociación, associazione, associação, asocijacija, vereniging, yhdistys, association, verein, association, stowarzyszenie, ассоциация, 協会
From the Webster dictionary: Association is: – a) an organized group of people who have the same interest, job, etc. – b) a connection or relationship between things or people
We have a boat, the Snipe!
We have the same interest: sailing Snipes!
We are all Snipe Sailors!
There is a connection or relationship between Snipes, Sailing Snipe, Snipe Sailors.
Definitely we need an association for sailing and racing Snipes!
But we already have an association! Many years ago the Snipe Sailors felt the need to come together in a class association. In September 1931 Snipe number 1 was issued and in November 1932 the Snipe Class International Racing Association was formed with Commodore Hub E. Isaacks. At the end of that year there were 250 numbered Snipes.
The object of the association is stated in the Constitution: “To promote racing of sailboats of the International Snipe Class properly regulated to insure that all boats have identical racing capabilities to as great a degree as possible”.
Being a member of the association is needed to run our Class. The members, the fleets, the captains, the National Secretaries, the measurers, the Technical Committee, the SCIRA officers, the Board of Governors, all run our Class in a democratic way. Everyone can express their own reasons to agree, disagree and have dialogue.
In order to assert their rights within the association, each sailor must be a member. And to be a member we must pay the fees.
The association has costs and a budget. The association must ensure revenue and these are essentially given by the fees. Hence we have the need that every sailor is in good standing with the payment of the fees and that each National Secretary and Fleet Captain check and ensure the membership of everybody.
In my opinion, even before all this, it should be a reason more personal and sentimental. Maybe someone will smile, but I think that being part of SCIRA is like being part of a big family with its benefits and its costs. It should not be too much to pay fees to be part of a big family, to participate in races, to see your name on Snipe Bulletin or on SnipeToday or on other regional sites or on Facebook.
The cost of the association is not high: more or less the cost of a pizza and a beer to be part of one of the oldest and noblest classes of the sailing world!
It’s also a matter of respect for those who respect the rules of membership. Would you go to a pizzeria with a large group of friends, and would eat your pizza, would you drink your beer, and then run away without paying the bill? How would you feel? How would your friends, who had payed the bill for you, feel? Surely they would feel uncomfortable. And you?
I hope this is enough to convince everyone.
However there is another reason. It is basically a penalty which may seem like a threat. Remember that the number of registered members affects the number of teams that a country can send to the Worlds this year. This is a reason why the National Secretaries should enforce the SCIRA membership rule.
Finally, I remind you that a large number of members means a stronger class, which can make its voice heard by the sailing world. It is useful for everyone to have a class that counts. This is true at the club level, at the level of the national federations, at continental level, at Pan-American level and at the highest international level.
Hope to see you all on the race course, happy to be part of the SCIRA with your SCIRA sticker on the boat!
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