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

to see what that was about. So they invited us to go and check it out…that’s how… we joined.” Another reason for joining has to do with interest in the traditional yacht club experience of competitive sailing for children and adults (the Regatta Factor). “We moved to the area and I wanted to race competitively and…I wanted to get into a group with more…like minded sailors.” And another said, “We decided to join because my daughter started in the sailing program and…we thought it would be better if we were members.”

CYC members and officers gathered at Tampa International Airport to welcome Youth Sailing Program graduate and silver medal winner Zach Railey home from the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China. CYC Archives.

134 The First Hundred Years: Clearwater Yacht Club, 1911-2011 Finally, some members saw CYC as a good “deal for the money” (the Affordability Factor). “They had a (membership) drive on and some people were talking it up.” “There was a special and…you could join for no initiation fee .” Other members joined because of the cruising opportunities and the availability of reciprocal arrangements with other yacht clubs (the Cruising Factor). “Because my husband and I were new boaters…we knew that… if you’re a member of this yacht club, you can go to that yacht club and be accepted and get free nights and just for the culture of boating because we wanted to be around other people who were boaters, pick their brains, get to know (them).” Other members were seeking the business and social benefits of belonging to a private club (the Networking Factor). A relatively new member said for example, “One of my partners - who is still very active in the club… made all of us join. He didn’t make us join, but he highly recommended it.” Social networking has been a motivating factor for many years. One of the club’s most tenured members remembers: “When we moved here (during WWII), we were told: ‘there are three things that you have to do: have to join the Clearwater Yacht Club; you have to go to the little theater; and you have to go to every Friday night football home game.’”