#7082 “Snowball”

The 1953 Snipe Worlds Championship (Monaco) is described in Ted Wells "Wells' Wanderings" column in the October 1953 Snipe Bulletin, and there is also an article with boat equipment and regatta observations by the winning crew in the December 1953 Snipe Bulletin.

#7082 “Snowball” Image

The 1953 Snipe Worlds Championship (Monaco) is described in Ted Wells “Wells’ Wanderings” column in the October 1953 Snipe Bulletin, and there is also an article with boat equipment and regatta observations by the winning crew in the December 1953 Snipe Bulletin. The winning skipper that year was A.J. Conde Martins (age 17 at the time) and the crew was Fernando Lima Bello, both from Portugal. Their results in the 5-race series were 2-2-5-3-3. The USA (2nd place, finishes 1-DSQ-2-1-1) was represented by Tom Frost (also age 17 at the time) and crew Fred Schenck sailing 1948 Varalay Snipe #7082 “Snowball” which was also winner of the USA Snipe Nationals that year.

By Giorgio Brezich

After the 1953 Worlds, “Snowball” was purchased by Scognamiglio (I think Luigi) who was shipping agent and father of Mino and Carlo, crews of Danilo D’Isiot and Mino Dellacasa. Mino won some Italian Championships while Carlo was the owner of the One Tonner “Resolute Salmon”, winner of the One Ton Cup. Also Carlo Scognamiglio was President of the Italian Senate for a term.

D’Isiot, a famous Italian Snipe skippper and Snipe builder and sailmaker, was interested about Snowball’s sails, but Frost wanted to sell everything, boat and equipments.

So Scognamiglio bought everything but the sails did not go to D’Isiot, because the complete boat went to Mino Dellacasa.

I remember that people fabled that in one day Ted Wells, at the 1953 Worlds, was able to measure all the boats while the whole second day was dedicated to check “Punta Salvore” built by D’Isiot, taking advantage of all the holes in the existing Class rules and regulations (the boat was 20 cm longer at the waterline, had a backstay mounted on a sprit etc.). Actually the boat was legal but did not follow the “Snipe criteria” for which Ted Wells was forced to rewrite the Class rules in order to prevent misinterpretations of the rules.

The last owner (or one of the last) of “Snowball” was Giovanni Cespa from Rome, editor of the sailing magazine “Giornale della Vela” who restored the boat in Tuscany.

Perhaps Luigi Scognamiglio was the first Italian sponsor for both for D’Isiot and for Dellacasa.

1953 Snipe World Championship

Monaco, French Rivera, September 5-12, 1953
  1. Conde Martins, Portugal
  2. Tom Frost, USA
  3. Clemente Inclan, Cuba
Sailed on Mediterranean Sea, 15 nations

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