In the early 1920’s, a local yachtsman who was searching for a suitable small boat for his young sons, came across a set of plans to scale in the 1921 issue of Rudder magazine. He had a local builder, Tom Broadway, build several boats and the class became immediately popular. In 1926, G.V. Johnson began building the boats. In 1928, the National Snowbird Yacht Racing Association was formed.

Olympic career

The Snowbird was the Olympic Monotype Class for the 1932 Olympics

Sailing at the 1932 Summer Olympics

Sailing/Yachting is a Olympic sport starting from the Games of the 1st Olympiad . With the exception of 1904 and possible 1916 sailing was always a part of the Olympic program....

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Olympic results

Rank	Country	Sailor
1		LEBRUN, Jacques Baptiste
2		MAAS, Adriaan Lambertus Joseph
3		AMAT CANSINO, Santiago
4		BEHR, Edgar
5		DIXON, Reginald M.
6		RATSEY, George Colin
7		LYON, Charles William Jr
8		TRELEANI, Silvio
9		THORELL, Sven
10		RIEDL, Hans
11		GOODRICKE, Cecil

The flight of the Snowbird

The flight of the Snowbird, started in 1936, became one of the largest small sailboat races in the World. The First race of record was sailed in 1926 for a trophy put up by the City of Newport Beach. Local yacht clubs had their own series, but the premiere race was the annual flight. At its height in the 1950’s nearly 200 boats entered.
The Snowbird sailors grew up and moved on to larger boats. They cruised the World, and sailed in Yacht Races. And some, like America's Cup

America's Cup

The America’s Cup is a trophy awarded to the winner of the America's Cup match races between two yachts. One yacht, known as the defender, represents the yacht club that currently holds the America's Cup and the second yacht, known as the challenger, represents the yacht club that is challenging...

 winner Bill Ficker, went on to make the history books. The Snowbird has sailed into history, but the memories linger on.

The snowbird with building #1 is on display at the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum, California.