Luis Soubie, Snipe sailor from Argentina

– 1) Your first time on a sailing boat?

It was – I guess – when I was 1 or 2 months old, in my father’s boat. There is a photo somewhere.

– 2) Your first time on a Snipe?

I was sailing optimist in 1984 or 85, and a guy from the club approached with a snipe and a sailed it for  5 minutes in a 6 knot wind, it was fantastic, it seemed very fast !

– 3) The most bizarre thing that happened in a regatta?

It was with Cecilia Granucci at the 1999 Nationals. A 30 knots gust came in the last downwind leg of a 5 knots race. We were in the back of the fleet, we saw it coming and we sailed it with pole all the way to the top of the fleet while everybody was capsizing. Finally we capsize too and another boat sailed over Cecilia and injured her with the center boar. A power boat took her to land and i was left capsized, with main out of the mast up to the spreaders, the jib with no cunningham and up to the spreaders too and a broken pole hanging from the boom.  I waited and I was approaching to the land, very dangerous, so I tried and I put the boat up, try to fix the jib and cut the pole and started sailing away from the shore going to the club, upwind. I sailed a few minutes and the finish line was there, so I finished the race !! ….. In 4th position, and with that we won the mixed Nationals by 0.25 of a point.