Sea Snark Stories; John Z

Follow on to my Sea Snark thread . Who would have thought the Sea Snark was such an utility boat! Received from John Zseleczky, naval architect;

Rod mentioned that there are a host of people out there with fond memories of their Sea Snarks. I’m one of them. Actually I’ve owned two, both given to me. Did anyone ever pay for a Sea Snark? My first Snark was used for about five years until it blew off the dinghy rack in a big storm. At that time I was under the misguided impression that someone might try to steal it so I had a lock and wire rope running through the daggerboard trunk and around the rack. In the big winds the wire ended up cutting my boat in half – into bow and stern sections. It seemed like a big job to cut up the rest of the boat for the dumpster so instead I gooped up the break with epoxy and sawdust. That became a main structural member and the boat went back in service for another four or five years.

These things really stink as sailboats with their tiny spars, itty bitty boards, lack of freeboard, etc but they excel in lots of other areas. Here are a few things I’ve put my Sea Snarks through:

• Yacht tender – hundreds of miles running back and forth to the boat on the mooring using a double paddle
• Mushroom anchor barge – loaded a 200 lb mushroom and lots of heavy chain in the old Snark, swam it out to the prescribed location and flipped it over; presto!
• Jumbo cooler – Terri and I had a wedding party at our community beach; I had two Snarks then, one served as the cooler for ice and beverages and one went up on the table with ice in the bottom to keep the buffet cold
• Pool toy – kids love to play king of the hill, flip each other over, etc
• Dinghy rack hoist – my Snark was on the bottom shelf of our dinghy rack during hurricane Isabel. The storm surge that followed brought the water level 8’ above normal. My Snark refused to stay underwater and lifted the whole dinghy rack up.
• Rowing shell – after my second kid was born I was broke but had visions of building a rowing shell. I built a pair of hollow-shaft basswood Piantedosi-type oars but the rowing shell never got built. Instead, I built a sliding seat rig with outriggers and plopped it in the Sea Snark. This thing flew! I rowed all up and down the Severn with it, including a trip around St. Helena’s Island with my 18 month daughter napping in the stern sheets.

True Sea Snark connoisseurs scoff at the idea of encapsulating styrofoam cooler material in plastic. The plastic coated ones never lasted long anyway. Does anyone know the true lineage of the Sea Snark. I’m convinced it’s a 25 lb miracle of naval architecture and would love to hear about its origin. Einstein said “make everything as simple as possible but not simpler” … maybe the Sea Snark was one of his ideas.

– John Z

Sea Snark; Start of a Thread

A YouTube on refurbishing a Sea Snark popped up recently and jogged my memory. This quintessential piece of sailing Americana has all been ignored by the sailing cognoscenti, a trend I hope to reverse by opening up this blog to Sea Snark stories.

When my sailing friends gather and we all are well into our cups, inevitably Sea Snark stories start spilling forth ..... what do you expect for a solid styrofoam dinghy with a pencil thin mast and usually a tobacco brand plastered over the lateen sail. So pony up your Sea Snark stories. Put them up on your blog. Add them to comments on my threads. Go over to my profile and email them to me.

Click here to see other Sea Snark stories on Earwigoagin.

To educate those who may not have had the opportunity to sail a Sea Snark.

First the Wikipedia entry for the Sea Snark .

Next the YouTube that jogged my brain, this fellow actually glassed over a Sea Snark. You get a feel for how tiny these boats are;



And another You Tube. This one advertises Pepsi;

Snark Thread Continues

Mighty oaks from little acorns grow.

Two professional sailors who got their start in the Snark foam sailboat;

Alan Drew; sailmaker, coach, North Sails rep

Alan relates this story. His Dad took Alan to the Washington Boat Show in the 1960's and they entered a raffle where a Snark was the prize. Alan's Dad didn't win but in talking to the winner, he found out she didn't have any way of getting the Snark home since she drove a convertible. A $25 offer was made and accepted and the Snark ended up in the family summer place in Maine. Alan's Dad taught himself to sail on the Snark (Mom kept an eye on him through the kitchen window and if he got into trouble, launched the family motor boat to the rescue). Alan sailed the Snark some but as is usual for young kids, found the Snark much more fun to capsize and swim around. Alan's Dad got the sailing bug in a big way, became a part-time yacht broker, first for Galion sailboats and then later for Yankee yachts, and upgraded his racing boats, finally ending up with a very successful Yankee 38, an S&S one tonner. Alan cut his racing teeth steering his Dad's keelers. But it all started with a Snark!

Renee Mehl, Vandestar Chair US Naval Academy, Around the World Racer

From Renee's comment I solicited for my Snark posts;

Yup, I learned how to sail on a Snark. We won it in a local church raffle in Michigan when I was in jr high school. We used to take it down to Gulf Shores Alabama and sail out in the Gulf from the beach. I remember my cousin trailing his hand in the water... until my dad asked him if he was trolling for sharks! We did get a visit from some dolphins once, I'm sure they were bigger than the boat. We also used it as a diving platform with the mast out back home in the pond. Not a very stable platform. Remember that sharp metal plate holding the rudder on? I have a nice scar on my elbow from that. Still, who would have thought learning to sail on a styrofoam Snark would lead a girl from an island in Michigan to wind up sailing around the world in the Whitbread?

And another Sea Snark video, this time with a yappy dog (thankfully the sound is off).



The complete Sea Snark thread is here

The Sea Snark and the Archipelago Rally

I haven't posted about the Sea Snark for some time so when I came across this video of that great little 11' foam lateen-rigged dinghy racing in the 2012 Archipelago Raid, I knew I had blog-worthy material. The Archipelago Rally is a small boat fun race out of Rhode Island with an emphasis on kids and parents participating. If you are an adult sailing by yourself, it looks like you are encouraged to dig up or modify something unusual. As a result there is a melange of small sailing boats - right up my alley.

This is a video of, what I assume, are two sisters racing the Sea Snark. In the video you can see various sailing craft such as a Boston Whaler Squall, a C-class open canoe, a 16-30 decked sailing canoe and a traditional flat-bottomed saling skiff, all passing our intrepid Sea Snark sailors!

The older skipper sister asks;

"So how is everybody else doing?"

And the younger sister crew replies;

"Better than us!"

And here is another, longer, video of the 2012 Archipelago Rally with a detailed look at the variety of boats making the trip including some of the history of the Sea Snark dinghy.



Here is a link to a post on the 2010 Archipelago Raid.

Sea Snark Thread Continues

Reminder; the Sea Snark thread remains open. Any stories about Sea Snarks gladly accepted for publication on this here blog.

Recently, John Z. pulled out his well traveled Sea Snark to use as a beer cooler for an Octoberfest party he held at his "horse farm". Great centerpiece!

Header Photo: The Ladies, Back in the Sea Snark

The previous header photo was of the two intrepid sisters racing the Sea Snark in the Archipelago Rally in New England. They were back again in the Sea Snark for the 2013 Rally. This is my kind of goofy regatta with all kinds of small sailing craft, dinks, canoes, catboats, some odd Frankenboats, some just useful (i.e - maybe not racing) smallboats. I covered the 2012 Rally in this post, including the stellar video the sisters put together. They put together another great video this year.



One of the founders of this sailing Woodstock, Chris Museler, has a report on the 2013 Rally over here. One of these days I'd like to put this on my fall calender.

Three-Beer Concept Model

John Z. invited me over to his place over Christmas Week. When I got over there he showed me his hand-drawings of a simple cruising dinghy similar to the Sea Snark. (He owns a 28' cruising sailboat and wanted a QD - quick and dirty constructed dinghy to tow behind the sailboat on his trips.) We quickly decided to build a concept model that evening. I returned to my house to retrieve some thin cardboard and we went to work, cutting the cardboard, and putting the pieces together with a hot-melt glue gun. I mostly watched, held cardboard pieces together, and added my two cents worth at every decision tree. I call it a three-beer model because, in an hour and half of slapping this model together, I had two craft beers and John had one.

The finished model was a simple flat bottom, slab sided hull. John has since taken the concept model and massaged it in a computer. He is planning construction when the weather turns warmer.

The blogmeister holding the three-beer model. The sides of the model are thin pink foam that John sliced up using his new hot-wire foam cutter he designed and built.

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Over in the comments section, blogger My2Fish, a nuts-and-bolts guy, wanted to see photos of John Z's hot-wire foam cutter. Here are two. It is a bow cutter. (Sort of like a bow saw - one end, the top end in this photo, is the tensioner, the other end is the hot-wire.)

John cutting a thin sliver of foam using the floor as a base.

Archipelago Rally; Fun in Small Boats

We've covered the Swedish Archipelago Raid in Multihulls . This "Archipelago Rally" is a different sort; a late fall fun day in small dinghy sailboats organized by several New England ex-collegiate sailors. I don't know much more than what I can glean from the video but definitely the emphasis is on fun and not so much on racing. It is organized as a pursuit race with the slower boats starting first and the faster ones starting at timed intervals afterwards. I assume the first boat across the finish line is the winner.

Plus, any video that features the Sea Snark gets my nod!

Video is well done by Boating Local.