2010 Classic Snipe Rally Know Your Trophies Strategies for the ...

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