How’s this for off the wall?

[Lorrin Barth]

I found a Snipe sailboat for sale on Craig’s list. When I first saw it I realized it was very old. But the sail number, hull number and the trailer number all matched. They all left the factory together. This wouldn’t be my first old sailboat so home it came.

There’s an old Snipe shown on youtube where the owner says his boat was built in 1966. It has sail #16667. The boat I bought has sail #14202. I’m retired now and I figure this boat was built when I was in junior high.

Sails are tatters, tiller is shot and pieces are missing. But everything still there is original.

One of the things I thought would be impossible to replace was a missing jib car that hadn’t been made in decades. But I took the one I had to a sailboating shop in a nearby town (a sailboat shop in Nebraska is in of itself crazy) and the owner pulled open a drawer and handed me an identical part. Is this an omen?

I need to fix, sew, varnish, replace and buy stuff. Maybe before the summer is over it will be time to find some water.

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[Lorrin Barth]

Well, I’ve got the trailer to where I can tow it now. New hitch for the car, wiring and converter box for the trunk, new taillights for the trailer, new strap for the trailer, fixed the winch, new winch rope and new safety chains which I had welded on today. Now, for the boat.

[Willo]

Does yours have the cockpit cover too?

We used to have one of those when I was real young. I might be able to dig out a slide or two of the boat if I can find one in my dads old stash of mostly railroads of the world pics. IIRC it was traded in on or sold for a new AMF sailfish for one of my sisters. But by the time I was in my early teens the class had gotten so small that I was the only one in the class for the last race week I sailed in. Sunfish which were similar, grew to be a huge class with near a hundred boats in the class for many sailboat races back in the olden days.
Our snipe was old when I was young, so I’m guessing early fifties possibly for a build date, maybe even older than that.

Now, after double checking my spelling I remembered my sister complaining that there were no longer any other snipes for her to race with during race week. And the sailfish was one of the early fiberglass boats that were much easier to maintain and and they were getting really popular around that time.

One of the best ways I remember to gauge the boats efficiency is by how high into the wind you can point her and still make headway. Another is to see how well she planes when running downwind or on a reach.
Although one of the most important aspects of the boat is how dry you can keep the bilges
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilge

If she hasn’t been in the water for a while the joints below the waterline open up and it takes a while for them to swell one she gets back in the water, a day or two at most.

[Lorrin Barth]

This is a glass boat. I previously (years ago) owned a Bluejay. That boat had a wooden hull. The first time in the water in the spring it would leak and then not a drop the rest of the summer. BTW, the Bluejay with its small rig and Nebraska with its big wind was the perfect combination. With two adult males as crew we could sail in all conditions. It was a great boat. We never turned it over.

The snipe with its dagger board and nonfolding rudder looks to be more trouble getting in and out of the water. With the jay you just sailed onto the beach and the hull was so light one person could carry it to the trailer. The snipe also looks to be wetter.

One of the things missing from this boat are hiking straps. I’m thinking maybe old seat belts. I don’t know how they point but snipes with modern rigs are very fast. With this boat, my wife and I intend sailing on calm evenings, then throwing out an anchor and fishing. About all this boat has to do to make us happy is not sink.

[Willo]

I didn’t get the reference to glass boat the first time I read your post.
I was thinking Florida Silver Springs mermaids and glass bottom boats.
Then I finally got it, what can I say, I haven’t been boating in a long time. 🙁
When you said hiking straps I thought of trapeze and was wondering how they’d fit a trapeze on a snipe, but that took me less time figure out what you meant.
The smallest sailboat I know of that uses a trapeze is a cottontail. Glass, even back in the 60’s roundish lightweight hull and real fast. Trapeze and spinker. A tiny bit larger then the bluejay with an aluminum mast.
One of my childhood friends had a bluejay and he asked me to crew for him one year. There were three of us in the boat and we were all about 12 or 13. We placed fairly well in the races too, mostly due to my friends skippering abilities.
I also crewed for one race on a raven when I was still in my early teens. Ravens are a big boat around 22 foot with winches for the jibs and a block and tackle for the main. There were one or two bigger class boats around at that time, but not many of the race boats were bigger then the ravens. The skipper said I was too slow to be his jib man but he also mentioned my weight which was about 95 lbs at that time, which I think was more on his mind then my speed at cracking the jib winches. It had a trapeze too, but I never got a chance to use it, at 95 lbs I wouldn’t have been able to flatten the heal much using it anyway.
This thread about your snipe is sure bring back memories. 🙂
I haven’t gone fishing in a long time either. My younger brother got my rod and reel as a hand me down, or something like that and I haven’t been fishing since. I still stop and chat with surf casters when I get to the ocean on my surfing vaction, but I spend most of my time in the water catching waves and getting tangled in their lines as I drift along the shore in the sweep currents.

[Lorrin Barth]

I had my bluejay at a regatta one day years ago but since I was sans crew I decided to watch from the water. At noon, after the first heat, people wanted to go across the bay to eat at a restaurant on far side. So, I started hauling loads of people across. The reaction I got when I’d throw a line onto the dock cleat when arriving was interesting. With all that weight on board there would be collective gasp as they expected the boat cleat to pull out. I had every bit of equipment on that boat strongly reinforced. There was no danger. Great boat, I sure miss it.

I spent two days last week sewing tattered snipe sails. The tiller is repaired. The boom, tiller and rudder are varnished (the mast is aluminum). The standing rigging is sloppy loose but I’m told this is the way they sailed them back when. I’m waiting on some gear for a vang. Apparently, the boat originally didn’t have a vang, at least not as we think of one today.

So, I’m getting close to putting it in the water. But I still can’t figure out how the original hiking straps were arranged. There just aren’t any holes for missing fasteners, only three very high clips for the crew, nothing for the skipper. I’m not fond of the idea of drilling new holes in the bottom of a boat.

[Lorrin Barth]

[URL=http://s965.photobucket.com/user/drbarth1/media/Subaru/DSC_0204_zps6e90aaf7.jpg.html][IMG]http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae135/drbarth1/Subaru/DSC_0204_zps6e90aaf7.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Getting close to being sorted. I still need to make a handle for the dagger board. And, I need to buy a paddle. It is required by boating regulations. At the boat house they are $50 to $75 – no way am I paying that.

[Lorrin Barth]

I viewed a video on youtube tonight that showed abandoned aircraft corroding away on the on the ramps where they were left. Overhead and coming in to land was a P-51. Very symbolic of what can be if somebody cares enough.

My little boat is no P-51 but I have brought her back and she sails again.

[Author]

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