<strong>Snipe</strong> Personalities By John Rose Fred Schenck is a well-known Southern California sailor who was US <strong>Snipe</strong> Champion in 1957 and SCIRA Commodore in 1958. Fred celebrated his 86th birthday last fall, and lives in Santa Ana, California, close to nearby Newport Beach, where he logged many sailing successes. Fred started sailing as a teenager, in about 1935. He recalls that his mother helped convince his father that he should be introduced to sailing in the Alamitos Bay area near Long Beach, California. He recalls that his fi rst <strong>Snipe</strong> was #1459, built in Santa Monica, California, and it would have been almost new at the time. His father drove Fred and his friend and crew-to-be, George Lounsberry, over to Santa Monica to see the <strong>Snipe</strong>. It had a mahogany-planked hull, canvas-covered deck, daggerboard (an advantage for racing), a rectangular mast with track, sails by Kenneth Watts, but no trailer. Fred’s father said they would buy the <strong>Snipe</strong> (for $175) if the seller would launch the boat so Fred and George could sail it from Santa Monica to Alamitos Bay – a distance of more than 21 miles – on the open ocean! When Fred commented to his father whether there was a concern about capsizing, his father replied that the boat was made of wood and would fl oat, and that the kids could swim. (Author’s note: not sure that any parent would allow something like that these days!) After an all-day sail, they made the trip to the new home base. His father had a new steel trailer custom-made for the <strong>Snipe</strong>, put a new deck on the boat and renamed it Winsome. Fred’s mother painted a small board which read “We Hope” and added it to the boat’s transom. Fred didn’t do well in racing at fi rst, but learned the skills and eventually was competitive with successful local <strong>Snipe</strong> sailors of the era such as Darby Metcalf and Bill Gard, who had early <strong>Snipe</strong>s (#2047 and 2048) built by Lou and Ted Varalyay at a boatyard called Yachtsmen’s Services in Wilmington, Calfornia. In 1938, Fred competed in his fi rst major national <strong>Snipe</strong> racing, at the <strong>Snipe</strong> Junior Nationals and <strong>Snipe</strong> Internationals at Lake Wawasee, Indiana, sailing a borrowed <strong>Snipe</strong>. Then in 1939, Fred’s father ordered a new Varalyay-built <strong>Snipe</strong> #3456 Grey Goose which Fred sailed to second place in the Junior Nationals, then he loaned it to Walter and Bob Hall of Oakland, California to compete in the <strong>Snipe</strong> Internationals – which they won (see article in SCIRA <strong>Snipe</strong> Bulletin, Spring <strong>2008</strong> issue, for more details). Fred says he always considered himself a better crew than skipper – which is open to debate, for sure. But Fred did crew for Darby Metcalf when he won the <strong>Snipe</strong> Internationals in 1940, Clark King when he won the <strong>Snipe</strong> Nationals in 1950, and also crewed for Tom Frost when he won the <strong>Snipe</strong> Nationals in 1953 and 1954 – so he is a great crew! As skipper, he competed in the <strong>Snipe</strong> Nationals in 1955 (fourth in the Heinzerling division) and 1956 (sixth in the Wells division), and then hit the jackpot, winning the <strong>Snipe</strong> Nationals in 1957. Fred went to the 1957 <strong>Snipe</strong> Internationals in Portugal and fi nished third in that competition. Fred also competed in the 1958 <strong>Snipe</strong> Nationals (fourth in the Heinzerling division) and in the 1959 <strong>Snipe</strong> Nationals (thirteenth in the Heinzerling division). In the 1960s, he “drifted away” from racing <strong>Snipe</strong>s, but owned other racing sailboats. In dinghy racing, he’s owned Lehmann 10 and 12 racing dinghies, an Olympic Class Finn dinghy (he says he was too light to compete successfully), a Sabot dinghy (senior champion), an International 14 dinghy (Pacifi c Coast champion). He also owned keel boats, including two Dragon Class sloops, and competed in Olympic trials in New Orleans and Long Beach - which convinced him that he was basically a “centerboard sailboat sailor.” In more recent years, he has raced a radio-controlled (RC) sailboat but is no longer active in that. But Fred does enjoy socializing with his former <strong>Snipe</strong> friends, and meets frequently with Jerry Thompson and just recently had a “reunion breakfast” with past well-known <strong>Snipe</strong> sailors Clark King (<strong>Snipe</strong> National Champion 1950 and 1956), Don Ayres, Mike Jager and Phil Ramser – all big name successful <strong>Snipe</strong> competitors in the Los Angeles area in the 1940s through the 1960s. After all these years of <strong>Snipe</strong> sailing, Fred has some great tales to tell, and entertains his many friends with funny and interesting stories. He is truly a “<strong>Snipe</strong> Personality.” Four famous <strong>Snipe</strong> sailors, with seven <strong>Snipe</strong> International or National Championships among them. Front row (l to r): Darby Metcalf (1940, 1941 International Champion), Tom Frost (1953, 1954 National Champion), Clark King (1950, 1956 National Champion). Back (standing): Fred Schenck, 1957 National Champion and 1958 SCIRA Commodore). Fred also crewed for each of the other three at least once in their respective Championship wins. Photo courtesy Fred Schenck, by Beckner Photo Service. It was probably taken sometime in the mid-1950s, at the Newport Harbor YC in California. 10 www.snipeus.org
US SNIPE SAILOR <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2008</strong> 11