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

Cochran, Sr., however, valiantly continued to represent the club in the few regattas that were held around the state and the country. During the war years, CYC served as a place of entertainment for troops stationed nearby (Ransom and Tracy, 1961). The 1941 Clearwater City Directory lists the club as the address for the following organizations: National Secretaries Club, League of Women Voters, Sons of American Revolution, Skipperettes Club, Pilot Club of Clearwater, Clearwater Beach Rotary Club, Ladies of Kiwanis, Retired Officers Club, and the Investment Club (a very early women’s investment group). Both Betty Wickman McGraw Perkins and Peggy Word remember being told when they moved to Clearwater in the 1940s they should join Clearwater Yacht Club right away because that’s where everything happened. At the end of the war, CYC returned to the sailing circuit in a big way. Don Cochran, Sr., won the Southeastern Snipe Championship in Charleston in 1947. Cochran’s son Jimmy won the same regatta a year later. Mayor Seavy’s young son Francis (just returning from service in Algeria) started his long and stellar career as a Snipe sailor. Seavy took third place in the Snipe Nationals in 1948. In that same year, he took first place in the

Florida Sailing Association Snipe Regatta in Tampa—giving CYC a 1-2-3 victory with Jimmy and Don Cochran, Jr. At the Orange Bowl Regatta in 1949, CYC again had the first three places with Seavy, Jimmy Cochran, and J. Montanari. A third CYC 1-2-3 during these years was won by Don Cochran,

Above: Testing Donald Roebling’s “Alligator” amphibian tank on the bay in Clearwater during WWII. Courtesy of Dave Perkins. Left: Roebling’s “Alligator” invades downtown Clearwater (1944). Courtesy of the Seavy family.

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