Club News

Dates for 2026:

The Holm sailing club committee is currently (2026) made up of:

Holm Sailing Club is based in the village of St. Mary's where Snipe one design dinghies have been raced for over seventy years. In recent years the club has changed to offer junior sailing in Toppers as well as sailing in other dinghy designs. The Snipe One Design class remains the backbone oof the club. The Snipe is an International One Design Class which offers competitive racing, with a friendly informal atmosphere. The Snipe has a relatively narrow hard chine hull. Spinnakers are not allowed on the sailplan. A fairly hefty aluminum dagger board is used and the mast and boom are made of aluminum. As far as speed goes the Snipe is similar to a Wayfarer; upwind the snipe can be a little faster downwind the wayfarer will have a speed advantage once the spinnaker is hoisted.

The Snipe Class has now been around for over 85 years and is well established throughout the world. The class rules are well controlled; differences between boats tend to be minor, winning is more often through sailing skill. At Holm Sailing Club we have a wide range of sailing abilities.

As far as racing goes, good competition is more important than outright speed. Sailing in Orkney, the best competition is within the snipe fleet; typically regattas attract around ten boats within the snipe fleet, other popular classes in Orkney can draw about four boats (e.g. Wayfarer). Orkney has hosted the Snipe UK championships, in 2013 and 2017.

The facilities at St. Mary's include a pier and a slipway. The slipway allows easy launching of small boats at most states of the tide. Once on the water the racing tends to be around laid marks within the small bay at St. Mary's. The bay is on the Eastern side of Scapa Flow, protected from the North Sea by the first of the Churchill Barriers.

Each Tuesday evening in the summer points racing is held by the club. The racing is round laid marks within the bay and courses are typically of short duration (around 20 minutes) with maybe three races.

If you are considering buying a sailing dinghy to race in Orkney there are many different types to choose from. If you go for a snipe you will be able to compete with some of Orkney's better sailors. The boat will be easy to handle both in light wind as well as a strong blow with big waves. The boom is relatively high, an important safety factor when teaching children how to sail.

Holm Sailing Club

Holm Sailing Club is based in the village of St. Mary's, in the parish of Holm (pronounced Ham, from the Norse Havn), and is one of three sailing clubs based on the Orkney mainland. The sailing is based in St Mary's Bay on the Eastern side of Scapa Flow. Holm Sailing Club is based on One Design racing, with all boats being the International Snipe Class. During the summer the club runs evening points racing every Tuesday. The club also hosts an annual regatta open to all types of sailing craft.

Why One Design? The idea of One Design racing is to have all the boats in a race to be nearly the same. No handicaps are used and there is no requirement for races to be timed. The first boat to cross the finish line is the winner. Providing the class is well controlled in terms of design, differences in boat speed are due to how the boat is sailed, other factors are greatly reduced. If you want to win races you have to be well prepared, boat handling skills must be good and the boat has to be sailed quickly. Tactical factors also become important in One Design racing. With Snipe racing the fleet doesn't tend to spread out much, when boats are close together gains can be made by knowing the rules, and how to take advantage of them when you meet other boats on the race course.

In the words of the great Paul Elvstrom, good competition is more important than speed. Sailing in Orkney, the competition within the Snipe fleet is generally good. Typically local regattas attract around twelve boats within the class, other popular dinghies can draw up to four boats (e.g. Wayfarer, Merlin Rocket, Laser). The larger fleet sizes make it more difficult to win trophies, as the competition is tight at the front of the fleet. The racing is run to the ISAF Racing Rules of Sailing, however protests are very unusual.

The facilities at St. Mary's include a pier and a slipway. The slipway allows easy launching of small boats at most states of the tide. Once on the water the racing tends to be around laid marks within the small bay at St. Mary's. The bay is on the Eastern side of Scapa Flow, protected from the North Sea by the Churchill Barriers. The racing area is well sheltered and largely free from creel buoys and shipping activity.

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Holm Sailing Club Committee history

The original committee consisted mainly of the men from Rockworks, but since it closed down in 1954, all members have been local and all Commodores have been sailors.

Alfred Flett was Commodore of the club for a remarkable 15 years, and like most of the Commodores he served as Vice-Commodore before. Jack Foubister, Sinclair Muir and Fred Johnston have all served the role of Commodore on two occasions.

No club can function successfully without an efficient Secretary and the success of the Holm club has in no small measure been thanks to John Tait, Lower Breckquoy who held the post for just over thirty years. Another long server of the committee was the treasurer Eric McLennan who looked after the clubs finances for some 30 years.

In 1988 the club welcomed its first lady office bearer with Jack Foubisters wife, Ruby, taking over as secretary from John Tait. From 1988, Ruby ran the weekly points racing very efficiently, latterly helped by Jack since he retired from sailing, a task which quite frequently means spending some three hours on the pier head. In more recent years Jim MacDonald has done a great job as the Race Officer for the weekly points evenings.

The club has a safety boat (Lena) which for a number of years has been operated by the combination of Brendan Fletcher and Bruce Johnston. Lena provides safety cover for sailing events. It is quite unusual for Lena to have to assist snipes in trouble but it is a great benefit to the club to have the safety boat attending race evenings.

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The Snipe

The Snipe is an International One Design Class which offers competitive racing due to the well controlled class rules. The term 'International' is applied by the ISAF, the sailing governing body, to classes which are deemed to be sufficiently popular at an international level. The snipe is well established throughout the world with large fleets in many countries and many continents.

The snipe can be regarded as the grandfather of the modern sailing dinghy. The original design was penned by Bill Crosby in 1931 and although there have been significant changes the basic design has stayed the same. Originally the hull and spars were wooden, now modern boats have a fibreglass hull with aluminum spars. The Snipe has a relatively narrow hard chine hull. Spinnakers are not allowed on the sailplan. A fairly hefty aluminum dagger board is used. As far as speed goes the Snipe is similar to the Wayfarer.

Two people sail the snipe. Unlike many lightweight modern designs crew weight is not critical to racing success. In windy weather heavy crews will tend to fare better than light crews, and the reverse is true when the wind is light, but the differences in speed are small.

The Snipe Class is well established throughout the world, with large fleets in many countries. In the UK there are snipe fleets in Budworth (near Manchester), Maldon (Essex) and Blue Circle Sailing Club (somewhere way down South) as well as Orkney. In Orkney Stromness Sailing Club and Holm Sailing Club are both snipe clubs.

When considering what type of boat to buy there are many factors to take into account. If you choose to buy a snipe you can be confident that the class will still be around in ten years time, and if your boat is well looked after it should still be competitive. In Orkney many of the boats are over twenty years old, boats of that age can be bought relatively cheaply and raced competitively.

If you are considering buying a sailing dinghy to race in Orkney there are many different types to choose from. If you go for a snipe you will be able to compete with some of Orkney's top sailors. The boat will be easy to handle both in light wind as well as a strong blow with big waves. The boom has plenty of clearance for safe tacking ad gybing, an important safety factor, particularly when teaching children to sail.