The First Hundred Years: Clearwater Yacht Club, 1911-2011

Past Commodore David Billing

PC Billing has belonged to a number of excellent yacht clubs and every one of them has had an excellent race management team. Of CYC’s Race Committee, David says, Clearwater YC has an outstanding reputation for excellent race management and that was built by years of hard work by the members that preceded us. The current members do a great job of keeping the tradition alive and well and today we have some of the most knowledgeable race officers and organizers to be found. We have all learned from each other, watched what works well and what doesn’t; taken classes; worked with other clubs’ race committees; made mistakes and learned how to recover from them. If you asked me what was the most important lesson I’ve learned, it would be to make it fun for the competitors and the race committee. Everyone wants to start on time, play hard and then get back ashore at a reasonable time. John Ardolino In the summer of his eighth year, John was introduced to sailing on a Herreshoff 12½ on Peconic Bay in Greenport, New York. Later years found him sailing Flying Scotts on the upper Chesapeake until moving to Clearwater in 1980. Dick Boblenz encouraged John to join the Yachting Committee and Race Management Team. After completing many hours of various Race Committee assignments, he tested for and became a Certified Race Officer in 2008. He will soon have completed additional training and studies to become a Regional Race Officer. On the fore deck of his sailing yachts Agape and Destiny , he has participated in every major CYC regatta for nearly fifteen years. Jerry Harris Jerry Harris is the club’s newest PRO. Jerry learned to sail as an adult at Cowan Lake Sailing Club in Ohio. Cowan Lake required all members to rotate on the Race Committee. When he and his wife Carol semi-retired to Florida, they joined Clearwater Yacht Club and Jerry began to volunteer on the Race Committee—eventually becoming a PRO. He now works in that capacity in the Tampa Bay Area as well as in the Midwest.

Chapter 12: Excellence in Race Management 117