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

Women’s Sailing at CYC: Skipperettes, Bow Chasers, and Solmates

In addition to supporting the club through the efforts of the Gulls, the women of CYC have also participated in boating activities, in one way or another, since its earliest days. According to the club archives, the first organized women’s sailing event was held by a group of “sub-deb” girls known as the Skipperettes. This group of young, unmarried women (yes, they had to be unmarried, they were thrown out once they “tied the knot”) was founded in 1930 at

Skipperettes being a refining influence at the club in the early 1950s. Photo by George Fulmer; courtesy of the Seavy family.

the suggestion of then Commodore Jimmy Davis who hoped they would be a “refining influence on some CYC members who were prone to sit around in their undershirts, drinking beer and telling purple tales” (Ransom and Tracy, 1961:17). The first members of the Skipperettes were Blanche McMullen, Emily Marshall, Susan Gage, Evelyn Morrison, Dorothy Yerxa, Marianne Brumby, Josephine Scarlett, Lottie Livingstone, Marion Mason, Margaret Lee, Helen Kauffman, and Ruth Mighell (Ransom and Tracy, 1961). Throughout the 1930s, these girls held dances and teas at the club and did their best in the “refinement” department. In 1939, however, they decided to join the sailing life for which the club was famous. They became officially affiliated with CYC and organized and held their first regatta—which Dave Perkins’ sister Sarah won (Ransom and Tracy, 1961). The women of CYC also participated in the

A group of early Bow Chasers (1987): Jeannie Nash (far left), Carol Brown, Betty Jean Schutz, Susan Bankston, Edna Foster, and Patty Strohauer. Bow Chasers’ Archives.

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