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

Haligonian in the 1934 St. Pete to Habana Race. Photograph of an enlarged, tinted photo owned by Richard Kamensky. The original photograph taken by Ray K. Williams is housed in the St. Petersburg Yacht Club archives. Courtesy of Richard Kamensky.

An article printed on February 9, 1928, in The Independent indicates that, in addition to the “mahogany monsters,” racing small outboard craft was a popular sport that drew folks from around the state to Pinellas County: State’s Speedy Craft Entering Events Feb. 28 RACES OVER ISLAND COURSE EXPECTED TO ATTRACT 50 OF FLORIDA’S TINY RACERS Outboard motor craft owners of Florida are tuning their little engines and trimming their tiny shells for the next open races over the Boca Ciega course here Feb. 8 during dedication of the new gulf causeway and the new roads along the gulf beaches. While this particular event was held in St. Petersburg, race officials included members of several area yacht clubs and power boat associations, including CYC’s then Commodore Buford Edgar. In addition to racing, these small outboard craft were used in the popular sport of “aquaplaning”—a predecessor to skiing in which intrepid folks were pulled behind outboard boats while standing on a piece of plywood. Clearwater Bay provided an ideal location for this new sport (Dunn, 1974). By the end of 1928, the bubble of irrational exuberance represented by the Florida Land Boom had burst. As Jimmy Davis put it: “Finally, of course, came the bust, and what a bust.

Caesar Irsch aquaplaning in the bay. Courtesy of the Fleming/Green family.

It left us with no money, no Clearwater Yacht Club, no nothing” (Ransom and Tracy, 1961: 5). Clearwater was left a sadder, but perhaps wiser, town. The “Memorial

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