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

Miss Ann Bayly christening the good ship Jack Snipe in 1935. CYC Archives.

In 1934, the club decided to adopt the Snipe as its main racing sailboat, and to build a fleet that could represent CYC in local, regional, national, and international regattas. In the 1930s, the Snipe was all the rage in one design, small sailboat racing. The first boat in what was to become CYC’s famous Snipe fleet was launched and christened the good ship Jack Snipe by the commodore’s young daughter “Miss Ann” (Ann Bayly Cornett). The CYC fleet (#46) was to become known throughout the racing world within a few years of its creation. In 1957, Guy Roberts looked back on the history of Fleet 46. “We applied for a charter but having only 3 snipes we could not get one, so we organized a syndicate and built 10 or 12 and sold them to various members of the Club. In no time we had twenty odd snipes. During the year 1935 we were granted a charter and formed fleet #46” (Seavy archives). Along with establishing its racing program, in the mid-1930s the club began negotiations with the city to acquire the old pavilion that had stood on the gulf side of the beach since before the beach was connected to the mainland by the first wooden bridge. A severe storm had damaged the lower floor of the pavilion and the ever resourceful club wanted to “recycle” the second floor by moving it across Mandalay Avenue and turning it into a larger clubhouse (Ransom and Tracy, 1961). “On May 9, 1935, Clearwater City Manager A.C. Nichols told the Club that the City had finally agreed to cut the ‘Big Pavilion’ down to one story, move it across Mandalay, and place it on a foundation to be provided by the Club, the City also donating the used brick for the foundation…The pavilion had its top half sliced off, was moved across Mandalay and set on the foundation on August 11, 1935” (Ransom and Tracy, 1961: 13).

Chapter 2: Boom, Bust, and Back Again 31