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The Art of the Heinzerling National Championship Trophy By Merrill Varn This article is the first in a series tracing the rich history of US Snipe racing through the benefactors of major trophies. In this installment, the person who donated one of our most prominent trophies did not sail Snipes. What sparked his generosity? Read on… Emblematic of the National Championship of SCIRA USA, the Charles E. Heinzerling Trophy is awarded to the winning skipper in the Heinzerling Division of the Snipe US National Championship Regatta. It was donated by Charles E. Heinzerling, and was first awarded in 1947. Charles Edwin “Pop” Heinzerling (1895-1978), was an artist, a boater, and a dancer but, above all, a father. He was not a sailor – but his sons were. You may remember they won the 1942 International Snipe Championship. At the time, Snipes were the largest dinghy fleet worldwide. Pop raised his two sons as a single dad after his wife’s death when Cliff was 5 and Ralph 7. He didn’t remarry until they were grown, instead choosing to raise the boys with the help of his parents at a big town house he bought in Bay Ridge, NY. Grandmother, or Nana, was a wonderful Mom but Pop thought the boys needed more freedom in the summer. There was also the ever-present threat of exposure to the poliovirus in swimming pools. So when they were pre-teens, Pop sent them to a camp with a lake. When they outgrew camp as teenagers, he bought a summer cottage at nearby Lake Lackawanna. Talented enough to earn long standing contracts with Coca-Cola, Hellman’s, Kellogg’s, Sunbeam Bread, Heinz Pickles, and Hoffman Beverages, among others, Pop had little trouble spoiling the youngsters with Heinzerling in Florida, sometime in the 1950s. everything they wanted – a rowboat, a kayak, and a canoe. 10 www.snipeus.org
When they yearned for a sailboat, a Snipe was the obvious choice since there was already an active fleet on the lake. As they say, the rest is history. The boys soon became the team to beat. Pop became the commodore of the yacht club. He drove the boys to regattas all over the east coast. With the onset of World War II and gas rationing their travel was curtailed, but they continued to get to as many regattas as possible. One of the boys’ favorite memories of Pop is the minute following the last race of the 1942 Championship. Pop was on the finish boat. The scorekeepers added up the finishes and pointed to the Heinzerling boys. When he saw that his sons had won the regatta and were the world champions, he was so excited that he jumped into the lake fully dressed in his yachting best. Pearl Harbor had been bombed the winter before and the United States was at war. Shortly after winning the Snipe International Championship both boys enlisted in the U.S. Navy. It was a tough few years for all three of them “Give the medallion on the Heinzerling Trophy a close look the next time you get a chance. It was designed by a true expert and a true father to honor the memories of his boys’ successes in Snipes.” but both sons returned home without physical damage. Reunited, the boys were back to the racecourse and college and courting. Pop took the reins of SCIRA for 1946. That summer the event was held at Lake Chautauqua, New York. There had been international teams before, but the spirit was different this year. With a world war just over and teams from Brazil, Canada, Portugal, and Switzerland enjoying a regatta together, the group decided to promote international competition by releasing the Hub Isaacks Trophy for a true international event. The Swiss agreed to host the first World Championship in Geneva the following year. Pop, then Commodore, announced that he would design a new trophy for the U.S. National Championship. With his sons off to college and then raising their own families, Pop remarried. He and his new wife sold the Bay Ridge home and moved to Manhassett, NY. When Pop was 65, he retired. They moved to St. Petersburg Florida but traveled extensively, mostly in South America, and began Painting in his studio, 1940s. amassing their own set of trophies as ballroom dancers. Both sons and all eight grandchildren remember Pop fondly. His artistic skills were still in demand after retirement. When interviewed by the St. Petersburg Times about his life as a commercial artist, he told a story of personally submitting a biscuit ad to the president of Tasty Cake. “I’ll take it” the president said. The biscuits were a little fluffier with a touch more golden brown than the company biscuits. Handing the ad copy to an assistant the president said, “Make our biscuits look like this.” Pop was also the first artist to add refreshing beads of sweat to the outside of a Coke bottle; not even photographers have produced such a gorgeous bottle of Coke. He was the first to portray Coca-Cola as the partydrink, posing invitingly beside deliciously painted trays of ham, Swiss cheese, black olives, and gherkins. Give the medallion on the Heinzerling Trophy a close look the next time you get a chance. It was designed by a true expert and a true father to honor the memories of his boys’ successes in Snipes. Sources: Interview with Joyce Heinzerling (grand-daughter of Pop Heinzerling, daughter of Cliff Heinzerling) and her conversations with her father. St. Petersburg Times Article date unknown - probably early 1970s. Biography of Charles Heinzerling, by his niece Dorothy Heinzerling Fenniman, later published in a Family History in July 1977. Biography of Charles Heinzerling by Laura Berzofsky (grand-daughter of Pop Heinzerling, daughter of Ralph Heinzerling). Photos from Joyce Heinzerling and Laura Berzofsky. US SNIPE SAILOR Fall 2010 11
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