Another One Bites the Dust

Designed by William Crosby in 1931, the Snipe has evolved into a modern, tactical racing dinghy with fleets around the world. But herding sheep has gotten complicated for one design classes as the number of communication channels increase.

Scuttlebutt editor Craig Leweck with his wife Lisa on their way to winning the North Americans.

During the last Board meeting at the recent World Championship in Spain, the SCIRA (Snipe Class International Racing Association) Board made the difficult decision to cease printing and mailing the SNIPE BULLETIN, the official class publication, and to move to an all-digital version.

The main goal is to reduce the costs of printing and mailing, which was a significant portion of the Class budget. In this way, some of the funds saved can be used for Class promotion and for other projects.

However, time will tell whether seeing the printed publication on a household table, versus stored on our communication devices, will hasten the impact of the information. At least with this change, growing the audience for the publication won’t increase costs.

The history of the SNIPE BULLETIN is the history of the Class. The publication, that link which holds the family together, grew out of Crosby’s JIB SHEET which took over Snipe News from the RUDDER magazine in 1945.

The BULLETIN began as a monthly publication, with a few combined issues in its 30-year history. The JIB SHEET had one other editor, Chet Miller, SCIRA’S 1942-43 Commodore. In 1999 the Board of Governors voted to decrease the publication from monthly to quarterly. The BULLETIN has been a full color, quarterly publication since 2006.

In recent years, the communication of the Class has evolved with technology and has increasingly transitioned to the internet (e-mails, electronic newsletters, websites, social media, skype …). But the main and official source of information still remains and relies on the SNIPE BULLETIN.

Beginning with the next issue (Winter 2018), the class is moving to an all-digital version, which will be e-mailed to all SCIRA members. The class is currently investigating ways to enhance the digital version with hot links to advertisers, possibly some embedded video and media links as well as other enhancements.

To subscribe to the digital SNIPE BULLETIN… click here.