Snipe Personalities

WILLIAM F. CROSBY [1890-1953]

Designer of the Snipe sailboat, in 1931. Editor of The Rudder magazine, a monthly publication, for twelve years prior to WW II. He also designed many other sail, power and small boats over the years. Crosby owned and actively raced two Snipes on Western Long Island Sound in NY -- Snipe #3 "Snipe," built in 1932 by Minnefords Yacht Yard in NY, and later Snipe #4000 "Also," built in 1940 by Dunphy Boat Corporation in WI. From 1931 to 1941, Crosby authored a special column in The Rudder magazine devoted to news of the Snipe Class International Racing Association [SCIRA]. This column continued through the WW II years and afterward, until the independent Jib Sheet magazine began publication of Snipe news in the years after WW II. Crosby served as Executive Secretary of SCIRA, as well as Editor of the Snipe Bulletin when it started monthly publication in the early 1950s, until his passing. During WW II years, he left The Rudder magazine to work for Huckins Yacht Corporation in Jacksonville, Florida on the design of fast torpedo boats for the Navy. After the war, he worked for Gibbs Corporation as designer of new power yachts and conversions of yachts from military to private use. Crosby then returned to boating magazine publications as Editor of Motor Boat magazine. Photo by famous yachting photographer Morris Rosenfeld of NY, from the October, 1953 issue of The Rudder magazine. Photo and information courtesy of the Archives and Collections Society, Picton, ON Canada and Blake Bell of Historic Pelham (NY).

LOU VARALYAY [1913-2000]

Lou and older brother Ted Varalyay, built many championship wooden Snipes in Gardena (Los Angeles), California from 1933 to 1976. They built their first Snipe #369 "Ska-Ram" in 1933 when Lou was age 20, lofting the lines on the living room floor of their home. For the first few years, most of their Varalyay-built Snipes were raced locally in the Los Angeles area and won many races. Then in 1939, they contracted to build a number of racing Snipes for hot local sailors, who launched national fame of these Snipes by winning the 1939, 1940 and 1941 Snipe International Championships before WW II. Both Ted and Lou Varalyay were a good Snipe team too, finishing 2nd in the 1940 Snipe Internationals and 3rd in the 1941 Snipe Internationals, in both cases with Ted as skipper and Lou crewing. After WW II, Lou and Ted Varalyay began Snipe production again in early 1946, and their wooden Snipes won more International and US National Snipe Championships - 13 in all between 1939 and 1963. Not only were their Snipes fast, but they were built with top quality workmanship and materials. The Varalyays also built fiberglass Snipes, first from a SCIRA prototype hull mold in 1957, and later from their own wooden Snipe hull mold in 1964. Their shop closed in 1976 and the molds were sold to Ron Fox of Phoenix Snipes, but in the 30 years from 1946-1976, it is estimated they built almost 400 Snipes. Varalyay Snipes currently are included in the collections of two maritime museums in the US, one at Mystic, Connecticut and the other at South Haven, Michigan.

TED WELLS [1907-1991]

Ted Wells started sailing Snipes in 1939 at Wichita, Kansas. Before that, he was an airplane pilot and raced planes around pylons, a popular spectator event and competition in the 1930s. He was Chief Engineer for Beech Aircraft Corporation and designer of the Beech Model 17 Staggerwing biplane, introduced in 1932 for business executive travel, a plane which had the top wing staggered behind the lower wing. Ted became a top competitor in the Snipe class, and was SCIRA Commodore in 1954 and for many years Chairman of the SCIRA Rules Committee. He owned at least six Snipes over the years, the most famous being many-time champion Varalyay Snipe #6025 "Good News" which was donated to the Mystic Seaport collection in Mystic, Connecticut. He won many Snipe championships including the Snipe US National Championship in 1947, 1949 and 1952, the Snipe International Championship in 1947 and 1949, the Snipe Western Hemisphere Championship in 1952, and the Snipe US Midwinter Championship in 1948, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1954, and 1957. He authored a regular column "Wells Wanderings" in the Snipe Bulletin, which offered many technical tips on boat upgrading and equipment, and racing tactics; and authored a famous book "Scientific Sailboat Racing" (Dodd, Mead & Co., New York, New York1950, revised 1958 and 1979). He was six-time Commodore of the Wichita Sailing Club. He sailed in his last Snipe regatta at the Snipe World Masters Championship in 1986, at age 79. Information provided by Wichita Snipe sailor Mary Ann Rix from family files, and from historical information supplied by Dan Williams, Harold Gilreath and Mrs. Art Lippitt (whose husband was Ted's regular racing crew).

CLARK MILLS [1915-2001]

Clark Mills started building boats in the 1930s and after WW II opened the Mills Boatworks in Clearwater, Florida where he built many championship wood and later plywood Snipes beginning in 1948. He was a reknowned boat designer as well, famous for designing the 7 ft - 9 in Optimist one-design racing and youth trainer pram dinghy (1947) which has grown internationally to over one-half million boats; the 16 ft Windmill one-design racing sloop (1953); as well as the 16 ft Com-Pac 16 day-sailor, 17 ft - 4 in Com-Pac Sun Cat day-sailor, the 14 ft Com-Pac Picnic Cat, and the 23 ft Com-Pac 23/3 cruising sailboat, all built by Hutchins Co., Inc. of Clearwater, Florida. He compared dedicated boat builders to priests who have taken oaths of poverty. He described Snipes as "a mean little boat to build" because of close tolerances for construction. Owners of his famous wood Snipes over the years included Francis Seavy, Clark King, Harry and Frank Levinson, Bud Hook, Jack and Dick Tillman, Morris Whitney, Don Cochran and Red Garfield, and several of these sailors won Snipe US National Championships with Mills Snipes in the 1950s and 60s. Information provided with permission by Southwinds Magazine and based on a January 2002 article by contributing author Cindy Goebel.