Marina del Rey Wooden Dinghy Race

2015 Wooden Dinghy Race (Marina del Rey, California USA)

By Robert Garlipp

The first Marina del Rey Wooden Dinghy Race was held in July 2015 as an invitational regatta sponsored by SCIRA Snipe Fleet 24, Santa Monica Bay, featuring all wooden sailing dinghies; and was hosted by the South Coast Corinthian Yacht Club, located at Marina del Rey, in collaboration with the Southern California Chapter of the Classic Yacht Association.

The event was organized to coincide with the Old Fashioned Day in the Park, an annual event held every fourth Sunday of July at the marina’s Burton Chace Park. This was the 39th year of the event. Marina del Rey is a large yacht harbor with many piers and condominium homes and has wide waterways with an entrance to Santa Monica Bay and the Pacific Ocean.

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Members of the the Classic Yacht Association populated the guest docks at the marina with their classic wooden motor yachts, while the park was lined with classic automobiles.

Snipe Fleet 24 has an interesting history and a unique status among Snipe fleets in the USA. The fleet was chartered by SCIRA in the early 1930s at Santa Monica, California – a northwestern suburb of Los Angeles on Santa Monica Bay, which opens to the Pacific Ocean. Early members of the fleet launched their boats off trailers on the beach. The fleet was active before WW II and afterward into the 1950s. In recent years, the fleet has been reactivated and rejuvenated with older Classic Snipes from the 1930s through the 1950s.

Some of the participating wooden Classic Snipes for the Wooden Dinghy Race were readied in heroic efforts in the days and nights before the race, with last finishing work still been done while boats where already on the hoist waiting to launch. The oldest participating Snipe was #3244 and is only one of two remaining boats of 14 or more Snipes built in 1939 by the Douglas Aircraft Snipe Builders in Santa Monica, before WW II. The other participating Snipes included a just completed and restored 1957 Snipe #10948 from Clark Boat Works; 1960 owner- built Snipe #12521 in original racing trim. and a 1960 California-built Varalyay Snipe #12415 that was restored and modernized.

The Snipes were joined by a Sonatina wooden one-design racing scow sailboat built by the owner, and three wooden racing dinghies – a Naples Sabot, a US Sabot and an Optimist pram. The Sabots and the Optimist were skippered by youth from Santa Monica Windjammers Yacht Club and the young skippers had also participated in the restoration and finishing of these popular racing dinghies.

The start line for the race was off the stern of a classic wooden 1958 Chris Craft Catalina motor yacht, providing the perfect backdrop as well as a stylish perch for our race committee. The race course led the fleet by Fisherman Village in the marina harbor, and out to the breakwater entrance to the marina, used as the turning mark, and back to the finish line off the stern of the classic yachts. The weather for the event was perfect, sunny days with light to moderate winds that were just right for sailing on protected waterways of the harbor.

Many spectators gathered on marina docks, which were open to the public to enjoy, and to board the yachts as well as observe the race.

Results in the Snipe class:

1st – Snipe # 12521 Katawampus (sail # 14279), 1960 owner- built Snipe
2nd – Snipe # 12415 Redd Foxx, 1960 Varalyay Snipe
3rd – Snipe # 3244, 1939 Douglas Aircraft Snipe
4th – Snipe # 10948 Minnie, Clark Boat Works Snipe

The Wooden Dinghy Race will continue in future years, as part of the Old Fashioned Day in the Park at Marina del Rey.

By Robert Garlipp, member of Snipe Fleet #24 and owner of 1939 Varalyay Snipe #3543 (the only pre-WW II Varalyay Snipe known to exist)