Crew 2 Hull weight 50 lb (23 kg) Beam 3 ft 2 in (0.97 m) | Draft 12 in (0.30 m) LOA 11 ft (3.4 m) Mainsail area 45 sq ft (4.2 m) | |
 | ||
The Snark is a lightweight, two-person, lateen-rigged sailboat manufactured and marketed by Meyers Boat Company of Adrian, Michigan. The Snark was initially marketed by Snark Products, Inc. of Fort Lee, NJ and has been marketed with numerous slight variations, prominently as the Sunflower, Sea Snark and Super Snark.
Contents
The sailboat was marketed heavily in numerous co-branding campaigns. The New York Times reported that the Snark outsold all other sailboats in 1970 – and that over 48,000 Snarks were sold in an 18-month period in 1971 via a mail order campaign with Kool Cigarettes. By 1973, over 200,000 Snarks had been sold and the New York Times reported that by 1976 that Snark had built more sailboats than any other manufacturer. The manufacturer currently estimates that nearly a half million Snarks have been manufactured since 1958.
Noted for its 11' expanded polystyrene hull and marketed as "unsinkable," a 1971 Popular Science reviewer doubted there was a sailboat "more foolproof." Originally, the purchase of a Snark included a 16 page booklet on 'how to sail,' and a 1975 Popular Science article described the Snark as the least expensive and lightest sailboat on the market.
Design
Early Snarks featured an unclad one-piece injection-molded EPS hull and weighed a total of approximately 30 lbs. Later versions featured a vacuum formed layer of ABS (later ASA) bonded over the EPS hull for a total weight of 50 lbs. Snark Products had patented the cladding process (which they marketed as "stronger than fiberglass") to eliminate the possibility of voids within the injection molded hull. Under Snark Products Inc., the technology was marketed as Corelite and is now trademarked as Armorclad.
Snarks (currently Super Snarks) have a monohull length of eleven feet; beam of thirty-eight inches; draft of .17 foot; and weight capacity of 310 lb. Features include a lateen-rigged nylon sail of 45 square feet; aluminum mast, spar, and boom; wood rudder and an integral center sleeve molded into the hull to support a removable wood dagger board. With an overall depth of 12 inches, the sailboat can be stored upright in a depth of 12 inches, and the boat is described as "car-toppable." The boats arrive as a knock down kit in a cardboard box and can be assembled in an hour.
The Sunflower model features yellow ABS cladding as well as a covered foredeck (or "splash deck"). As of 1974, Sunflower had been revised with its hull two inches wider, sides two inches higher, and 23% more sail area (mast 15 inches taller but same boom length) than the currently marketed Super Snark. Sunflowers were North American Yacht Racing Union (NAYRU) class certified and a Sunflower was displayed along with other American recreational equipment in a 1974 U.S. Information Agency exhibit touring Russia.
History
Snark Products Inc. was co-founded by Jim McMullen in Fort Lee, NJ. For the sailboats primary construction, Snark outsourced the EPS injection molding to a company in Connecticut; later expanding to its first production facility in Port Clinton, Ohio on lake Erie in order to bring the work in-house. McMullen would later conceive successful marketing tie-ins for the sailboat, including the award winning Kool cigarettes campaign.
Snark Products marketed the boats to Montgomery Ward and Sears (as the Whirlwind,) the latter becoming the company's largest client, as well as to hundreds of dealers across North America and internationally to licensed dealers in Japan, Germany, UK, and Canada. Snark Products Inc. provided licensees with manufacturing molds and marketing materials.
In 1972, McMullen sold Snark Products to Doyle Dane Bernbach (now DDB Worldwide), the world's third largest advertising agency, keeping a two-year management tenure. DDB subsequently sold the company to San Francisco-based Kransco. Boat manufacture moved between several locations, including Virginia Beach. In 1984, Lockley purchased Snark from Kransco, merging the two companies, to be subsequently purchased by Entwistle of Hudson, MA. Entwistle manufactured the boats in New Castle, Pennsylvania. In 1996, Snark was purchased by Meyers Boat Company and production moved to Adrian, Michigan.
Marketing
The 'unclad' Sea Snark retailed for $119, the Sunflower with its yellow ABS cladding was marketed at Sears in the late sixties and early seventies for $199. A 1971 ad in Boating magazine called the Sunflower "the Volkswagen of Sailboats."
In 1971, Kool cigarettes initiated an advertising campaign where consumers could mail order a Snark with the Kool logo on the sail – for $88 (later $99) along with one KOOL carton flap – which included delivery. These were early (non-ABS) versions and retailed at the time for $120. As one of KOOL's highest scoring ads, the company received over 18,000 orders for "Sea Snarks" in 1971 and the campaign was repeated in 1972. The Snark/Kool campaign won a national POPI award (given by the Point of Purchase Institute) as the most creative and inventive ad of 1971. The KOOL Snark promotion was repeated in 1972, adding the option of credit card payment, and again in 1975 for $139.
The Snark was used as a promotional tie-in with numerous companies including Coca-Cola, Vicks and Budweiser. In 1968, the San Francisco Chronicle ran ads for Mail-a-way, offering Snark sailboats as a giveway in a promotion of their Kodak film processing service.