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

money received from the city and to begin looking for (and figuring out ways to pay for) a new home for CYC. Having recently come out of a period of financial instability, the club leaders decided that, in order to protect CYC from financial difficulties in the future, they needed to separate the policy and administrative functions of the club and the control of club assets. According to George Hardy, “the purpose was for the Trustees to take title to all assets of the club and have the Flag Officers run the social activities within financial constraints...” The Board of Trustees was officially created in a trust agreement dated May 21, 1974. The first and most important task of the newly formed Board of Trustees, of course, was to find the club a new home. After investigating several options that turned out to be either unsuitable or unaffordable, Spencer Scheideman suggested the club try to negotiate with the developer of a financially struggling condominium project on Clearwater Beach. The club’s current site at 830 South Bayway Boulevard was the result of these negotiations. After the acquisition of the current site, the first Board of Trustees, along with Spencer Scheideman (commodore 1976–1977), worked tirelessly to raise funds, recruit new members, and find affordable ways to convert the two model apartment buildings located on the Bayway site into a useable clubhouse. By the late 1970s, with member labor and financial contributions and a loan from the First National Bank of Clearwater, the trustees had succeeded in acquiring the necessary funds and CYC was again ready to resume its active social and yachting life in the current clubhouse (Gamblin and Gamblin, 1976). In 1976, the club celebrated the Fourth of July with a picnic on the new site. Remarkably, while working on getting the two models put together and ready for occupancy, CYC mounted an Olympic Sailing Campaign in the Soling Class with Rick Grajirena as skipper, Steve Caulder as mid crew, and Dr. Bruce

Gentlemen of the club ready to celebrate the Fourth of July at the new club site (830 South Bayway Boulevard) in 1976. From back to front: Vice Commodore Riley McGraw, Director George Ewell, Secretary Turner Loehr, and Past Commodore Taver Bayly. CYC Archives.

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