I never really wrote about the Snipe sailing this year mostly because I was so obsessed with my aborted attempt to do a cross country bikepacking trip. Nonetheless, the season was pretty jam packed with a few new things along with the usual wash, rinse, repeat rhythm of the sailing season. The following are quick summaries of the events (Snipe and otherwsie).
Junior Worlds Miami
Since I was there for the Open Orange Bowl and I was chartering my boat, I stayed for the regatta and hung out with Lexi who was the official photographer and I trolled around as as a safety boat. I bolted home right after to get the house ready for the kitchen demo.
A ton of Lexi’s terrific pics: https://photos.lexiplinephotography.com/2024-Snipe-Junior-World-Championship
Rasco/Midwinters
The kitchen demo starting on January 29, incidentally our 30th anniversary, so at the end of that week I drove to Jacksonville and picked Lisa up at the airport and we drove to Miami for the Rasco followed by the Nidwinters in Key Largo, my favorite back to back events. Unfortunately we only got one day of sailing at the Rasco due to big storms the second day. After a few days in Miami waiting for better weather to practice, we headed to Upper Keys Sailing Club in Key Largo. We had 5 days of spectacular weather – 2 practice and 3 race days – with great shifty breeze. We ended up mid fleet in the Rasco but had a good series for the Midwinters finishing off in 7th. Lisa and I sailed Rob Ramirez’s boat at the Midwinters and Ivan and Lexi sailed ours. Team Annapolis did well in Key Largo with Bradley Adam/Thomas Walker winning the event.
Results: Rasco, Midwinters
I had planned to do the 3 day bikepacking Dirt Devil Tour in central Florida right after but the weather was heavy rain and temps in the 50s, so I just cruised around south Florida for a week, left the van in Lauderdale and flew home.
Bacardi Invitational
This was the first time the Snipes have sailed at the Bacardi Invitational in Miami. While those of us of a certain Snipe generation pine for the days of International Race Week in Bermuda, I think the Bacardi Invitational Regatta in Miami is an awesome replacement. This was the first year for Snipes, and while sailing Snipes in Coconut Grove is not a new thing for us, it was the first “high production” regatta I’ve done in a while. To make it interesting off (and in some ways on) the water there was a larger cross section of the one design community with Stars, J70s, Melges 24s, Vipers and VX1s than just a single class event. We got to see a bunch of people we haven’t seen in a while and had a lot of fun at the Bacardi parties. The sailing conditions were a bit of everything, but very lumpy with with almost 70 boats (with Vipers and VX1s) on our course. Very much the Miami version of the Annapolis washing machine. We ended up 7th (a bit above our usual mid fleet) and had a fun time with the very close racing.
We ended up 7th out of 20 a bit better than usual. Results.
DonQ
Unfortunately, Lisa couldn’t sail the DonQ due to a work commitment, so Nikki Bruno and I sailed together, driving down and back. The regatta was three days of a bizarre westerly with big differences in direction and pressure and I just could not figure it out. It’s the worst I’d sailed in many years. I was so frustrated, at one point I just dropped the tiller and said “I f-ing give up!”. I had an OCS in the last race to cap it off (good thing, it hid a 31st place finish). We ended 24/36 and even Evan who did not sail the first day with 3 DNCs beat me. By that point, I was pretty much ready to be done with the winter circuit.
Results, Hannah Lee Knoll Photos
SSA Spring Series
This was the typical May home season opener, but sadly there was not a popcorn fart of breeze all weekend, so was a non-regatta. Too bad, it would have been a good turnout with 11 boats signed up.
Colonial Cup
Yet another awesome Colonial Cup. The breeze was classic Annapolis with the washing machine on the high setting. We ended up 16/40 so definitely above mid fleet 
I sailed well and regained some confidence after my disastrous showing at the DonQ in April. Still made a few too many unforced errors that cost us a number of places, but overall pretty happy with it. You can read all the gory details in the full report below.
Results, Full Report, Ted Morgan Photos
Atlantic Coast Championships Surf City
Snipe Atlantic Coast Championships at Surf City 2024 was definitely one for the books with very strong SW breeze of 10-25 knots. We did 4 races Saturday and 2 on Sunday. We really enjoyed the reaching for a change and got in some good practice. Upwind speed was pretty good, but not stellar and I made a few tactical mistakes in places that cost us, but we ended up 3rd. All in all it was a great time in a really fun venue that is only a few hours away. Not sure why more Snipers don’t attend this regatta as it’s pretty central in the northeast and there is free housing at Lee’s beach house and SCYC is a really chill down to earth place. Plus awesome ice cream every night at the local Big Dip.
Snipe Nationals
I drove the double up to Boston for the 2024 Snipe Nationals at Jubilee YC in Beverly MA after helping with the administrative regatta tasks for the last few months. No self aggrandizing photos this regatta as we evidently were never near the photographer and I didn’t take many of my own, preferring to be in the moment and I had a number of regatta responsibilities/tasks to get done. We had a rocky start, but improved every day finishing off with an 8th in the last race to get to 20th overall and “above the fold”. JYC and the Boston Snipe fleets worked hard and put on a great event even though the wind gods didn’t cooperate as we would have liked. I left the boats at Jibetech and planned to be back up to New England in a few weeks for the Newport Regatta, but ended up bailing to go to LA to see my mother who passed away that weekend.
Full Results, Full Report, Regatta Picture Album
Feisty Girl Cruise
So great to relax in the Buzzards Bay / Islands vibe with Hew Russell and Lisa on Feisty Girl, just what the doctor ordered after the hectic Nationals and LA trip. We spent one night each at Hadley and Edgartown with a stop in Vineyard Haven on the way back to Marion. We topped it off with a spectacular 10 knot romp from Vineyard Haven through Woods Hole (under sail only upwind!) and across the bay back to Marion in two hours followed by a wonderful dinner with Hew and Michelle. After seeing Lexi and Andres for a few minutes in Newport, we fortunately had an easy drive back with the Snipes to close out an interesting week, to say the least.
DickC Cup/Snipe Summer Series
The 2024 DickC Cup/Summer Series was a ton of fun. Who says it never blows in August in Annapolis? A huge highlight was having Steve Callison and Maureen Hays-Mitchell come and sail as our teammates. It was my first time in the front of the Snipe for a while (I LOVED it) and I certainly got a workout. For the last two races of the day Saturday in 20+ I subbed in as the B crew with Steve and were team beef. Sunday was a bit lighter thankfully!
Women’s Nationals
Since I aborted the cross country bike trip, we just had to go to Lincoln NE for the Women’s Nationals. I drove solo both ways – 2-1/2 days each way – the duty of the retired guy! Lisa and Laura Varela were on fire with six 1st places and dropped a 2nd. This was the 4th time she’s won this trophy in 27 years. Sweet lake conditions with 5-12 knots and cool temps, fortunately as the temps the week before were in the 90s. Well done! I had a great time hanging out and doing a clinic on Friday. A really nice venue and I hope to get back there to sail sometime.
US Team Racing Championships
Lisa along with Ian Burman ran the 2024 Hinman and I was her aide-de-camp. She knocked it out of the park. Bummer the breeze didn’t cooperate today but overall some great team racing for the other two days and some nice kudos from the competitors.
Board of Governors Quassy
We drove up to Quassy for the fall Board of Governors regatta. We had (I think) three races on Saturday in decent (for Quassy) breeze, but sadly nothing on Sunday. Lisa again was steering and we won. Can’t remember what the scores are and they were never posted anywhere. After Lisa drove the boats home solo, I stayed overnight and departed the next day on my bikepacking trip around southern New England.
Snipe North Americans
Mantaloking Yacht Club hosted the NAs this year and the weather was pretty nice. A great place to sail. I again crewed for Lisa and she sailed very well and we ended up 6th.
Tiger Lily Delivery
In the putting 10 pounds of shit in a 5 pound bag that is so common in the Pline world, on Sunday after NAs, Lisa drove me up to the Manasquan Inlet about 15 minutes north of Mantaloking to meet Jesse to help him bring his boat back to the Chesapeake. We had a great overnight to the Delaware Bay, a bit bumpy in the 20 kt easterly, but fast. We were going to continue offshore to Norfolk, but the forecast was for 25-30 kts again from the east and Jesse did not have the proper sail combination as the small jib had recently torn (ah learning a new-used boat!) so we went up to the C&D Canal, uncharacteristically sailing most of the Delaware Bay. We anchored for the night just inside the Chesapeake and had a really nice sail to Annapolis the next day. Unfortunately, I had to get off with other commitments as Jesse headed back to Norfolk.
Masters San Diego/Snipe Fall Series
Because I had planned on being away on a bike trip, Lisa enlisted “Snipe Son” Carter to crew for her at the Masters in San Diego:
“I had a great time this past weekend sailing the US Snipe Masters with my “first born” Snipe Son Carter Cameron. I learned a ton and he was even more excited than I was when we won the last race! He only had to pick me up off the bottom of the boat once lol. I was super happy we ended up in the Top 10 at the end of the regatta (8th overall, 2nd Master (55-65). Thanks to Megan Murfey and Don Bedford for the housing, feeding and transportation and to all the folks at Mission Bay Yacht Club for the awesome regatta hospitality, especially George Walker and Grace Fang for leading the event. It was so much fun catching up with old friends and meeting new. Love my #SnipeFam
“
Meanwhile, since I was tired of traveling and wanted to support the SSA Snipe Fall, I enlisted Wiktoria Pedryc to sail the regatta.
Frigid Digit
Coming on the heels of the Snipe North Americans two weeks prior in New Jersey, the 2024 Frigid Digit had a bit higher turnout than anticipated thanks to four teams from Miami whose boats stopped here on their way south. In addition, we had two stalwart travelers from Rhode Island who year after year continue to battle the dreaded Northeast section of I-95 to sail in Annapolis. This energy also brought some locals off the sidelines and encouraged some friends of Fleet 532 to travel extra distances to come sail at our wonderful venue. Lisa sailed well for us to finish 9/21 and I was the regatta chair.
Championship of Champions
Lisa’s first place at the Women’s Nationals won her a berth to the US Sailing Championship of Champions sailed on Lake Maumelle in Little Rock AR in Y Flyers, a hard chine scow (think an MC and a Sunfish love child). Lisa enlisted Amanda Kremer from Colorado, the second place Women’s Nationals skipper to crew for her. While the breeze was light and the boat was weird, they had a great time and finished mid fleet. There were also a number of other Snipe sailors there and Lisa made some new friends. The fun thing about this event was Lexi was there covering the event for US Sailing so Lisa got some love from the photographer.
Full Report and Results, Lexi Pline Photos
J24 East Coast Championships
Earlier in the year, Steve Callison asked me to sail with him on his J24 for the ECCs. While I have sailed on J24s in the past, I surprisingly had never done a regatta. The regatta was a bit less windy than usual, but we were mostly consistent with a number of 3rds and were second going into the last race which was very light. Unfortunately, Is screwed the pooch tactically and an 11th moved us down to 5th. Despite that it was a ton of fun with a great group of people on the boat and it’s always fun to beat people with paid pros aboard! We were the top amateur team.
Tortola
In mid November, I did a delivery from Marion to Tortola in the BVIs. This was my longest offshore sail to date, nine days of sailing with a 3-ish day layover in Bermuda waiting for the weather south to clear. You can read the full details on that trip in an earlier post, but I really, really enjoyed it.
Open Orange Bowl
The end of the 2024 sailing season went out with a BANG! Literally. The Open Orange Bowl is a regatta hosted by Coconut Grove Sailing Club that runs roughly concurrent with Youth Orange Bowl regatta right before New Years. This is the second year we participated. It’s a bit of a logistical cluserfuck and we did it last year because I had to get the boat to Miami for the Junior Worlds. This year Lexi wanted to sail with Ivan and she was home for the Holidays and of course Lisa wanted to be warm, so we decided to do it again even though we were not going to stay for MSI (the Miami U30 event) because Lexi had to get back to work. We drove down, got the boat set up at Regatta Park in Coconut Grove. It’s a nice place to launch from but with many other classes there it’s the logistical mess, but at least it’s close to CGSC. Saturday brought rain and 15-20+ from the SE. We headed out to the start with Lisa steering but we switched as that generally works better with out strengths. Before the start there was a loud BANG! which was a sta-master shroud adjuster failing and we lost a shroud. Fortunately we got the sails down before there was too much damage to the mast and we were able to straighten it out for the next day. Sadly, the breeze never materialized on Sunday – total feast or famine – so we packed up, took the boats to the USSC for the rest of the winter Snipe season, had a nice dinner in the Grove and blasted all the way home the next day. Turns out New Years Eve is a good day to drive!
Bonus Content
Oh and little sailing bonus: My COVID obsession was watching sailing/boat building You Tube channels, Tally Ho, Nomad Boat Building, A Boat By The River, Duracell, Madison Boatworks, Ran Sailing, Sailing Magic Carpet, Sailing Uma, Tips from a Shipright, (was never a La Vagabond fan) and in this bonus case, Acorn To Arabella. So when Steve Denette was taking Arabella south in December and was coming down the Chesapeake, I offered up the SSA dock on my dime for 3 days for them to sit out a cold front. We had a nice meet and greet at Davis’ on a rainy afternoon and it was fun to see the boat and get to know him and Robin a bit; he’s quite an interesting Renaissance Man as well as a good old fashioned Yankee. In addition to the dock, was able to help them out with some chores such as getting propane and diesel fuel. Steve asked me if I was interested in helping them take the boat to Norfolk, which I would have loved to do, but we had the Snipe Christmas party at our house that night so had to decline.
That’s a wrap on the 2024 sailing season!
Team Pline 