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

and he decided this was what he wanted to do when he returned to his native Clearwater. His first shop was in Dunedin and was barely more than a metal roofed shed without sides or floor. Later, big sliding doors were added to three sides of the shed and a lofting area was added on the fourth side. With these improvements and a cement floor, the little shop became a gathering spot for the boating community

78 The First Hundred Years: Clearwater Yacht Club, 1911-2011 … called me on the phone and asked me to come to his office that evening. He had a great speaker at the Optimist Club meeting the night before and said he really had them all fired up ready to pursue a junior sailing program and he wanted me to draw him a plan for a simple little (Perkins, Perkins and Garris, 2004). As Clark put it: “One of the nicest things about the Clark Mills Boat Works was the high grade of sociability that was almost constantly ongoing...I usually had from two to ten people perched on the lumber pile or sawhorses” (Mills, 1984: 5). One of the frequent visitors to Clark’s shop was another colorful Clearwater character, CYC Past Commodore Ted Kamensky. “Mr. Kamensky was my buddy ever since I was five years old...He would stop in on his way to his grove each morning for just a few minutes. Then he would stop again on his way home to lunch and then again after lunch and also on his way home that afternoon...He was a real sailor and a good captain” (Mills, 1984: 13). While this level of “sociability” sometimes served to slow down production a bit, Clark did manage to build some fine boats in the post WWII era— especially Snipes. As he says: “I had sailed Snipes and crewed on them for several years and thought they were real good boats and all of a sudden I had about three orders for...Snipes all at once...It wasn’t long before I had some Snipes winning races in different states. This brought more orders and a bunch of publicity that helped us get known better. I probably built close to forty Snipes in the next three years” (Mills, 1984: 7–8). So, in addition to being a local hangout, the Clark Mills Boat Works was gaining some national exposure for its excellent Snipes and the CYC Snipe fleet was winning races in them. Then along came fame from an unexpected source. As Clark reports, one day Colonel Cliff McKay:

Clark Mills Regatta, 1980. Photo by Mike and Anne Adair; courtesy of Betty McGraw Perkins.