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

Clearwater Yacht Club’s Roster of Sailing Champions

Yesterday In the early history of CYC, four names stand out among the club’s many racing competitors: Past Commodore Guy Roberts, Past Commodore Ted Kamensky, Don Cochran, Sr., and Francis Seavy. Guy Roberts (commodore 1947–1948) was born in Cedar Key in 1890 and moved to Clearwater in 1895. He was a well-known boat builder and sail maker and owned Guy Roberts Snipe Racing Sails, Inc. Roberts built the first boat in the CYC Snipe Fleet (the “good ship Jack Snipe ”) and Snipe 508 (the boat presented to Commodore Taver Bayly). Along with Taver Bayly, Roberts was instrumental in establishing the club’s Snipe fleet, organizing the first International Snipe Midwinters Regatta (which celebrated its seventy-fifth anniversary in 2011), and setting CYC on its way toward earning an international reputation for racing excellence. Not only did Roberts build Snipes and make their sails, he also sailed them and sailed them well—bringing many honors home to the club. In the 1930s, Guy Roberts with Ted Kamensky and Don Cochran, Sr., were known as premier Snipe sailors. A newspaper article written in 1939 says of these three CYC sailors: “Wherever Snipe racing is talked the world over these three skippers are rated as tops.” In 1954, when he was an elderly gentleman, he came in fourth in a large fleet at the Snipe Midwinters. Ted Kamensky (commodore 1932–1933) was a legendary sailor in the Tampa Bay Area. Born in 1883, Kamensky was a native of Clearwater and like many

Guy Roberts building the Snipe presented to Taver Bayly by CYC. Courtesy of the Jamieson/Cornett/Bayly family.

Guy Roberts (third from left) receives the fourth place trophy in the 1954 Snipe Midwinters. Courtesy of the Seavy family.

Newspaper photo of Theodore Kamensky with other captains and owners before the start of the 1935 St. Pete to Habana Race. Courtesy of Heritage Village Archives and Library (St. Pete to Habana Scrapbook 012).

122 The First Hundred Years: Clearwater Yacht Club, 1911-2011 native Floridians was a citrus grove owner who spent his leisure time on the water. Kamensky sailed everything from Snipes to schooners in regattas ranging from “fun sails” to highly competitive distance races—and won a great many of them. He is perhaps best known for his contribution to the winning record of the Haligonian in the St. Pete to Habana races of the 1930s. According to Past Commodore Don Cochran, Jr., Kamensky was known all over the Tampa Bay Area and beyond as the “best deep water sailor who ever lived.”