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

Preface YCe as tme radr aa yd,e rTi eo,d aCy ,r uai ns idn gT, oamnodr r o w : Competitive Sailing

Yesterday

On February 14, 1911, five members of Clearwater’s “Wealthy Winter Gentry” met in the Tampa offices of the Honorable J. B. Wall in order to sign the articles of incorporation that brought the Clearwater Yacht Club (CYC) into the world. According to this document, “the general object of the association shall be to promote social intercourse among its members, and to encourage and promote sailing and yachting.” CYC legend has it these articles are the formalization of a plan hatched at an occasion of “social intercourse” held on New Year’s Eve at the waterfront winter home of Lowe Emerson. He is said to have asked his cronies, “How many of you gentlemen are in favor of a yacht club, someplace where we of the sailing gentry can gather for social activities as well as to arrange sporting contests?” (Ransom and Tracy, 1961:2). Apparently the response was positive, because on Valentine’s Day, Lowe Emerson, A. G. Rhodes, L. B. Dickerson, Hub Simpson, and Thomas Phillips were in the judge’s office signing the papers (see Appendix A).

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