Chapter 43

Optimists

Photos by Walter Steinhard
 
ONE-DESIGN PRAMS FOR JUNIOR SAILORS.
LENGTH: 7 FT. 10 IN.  BEAM: 4 FT.
 
In mid-August of 1948, down here in Clearwater, Fla., the last race of the Orange Crate Derby had been run and the winner had been declared. This competition was the local version of the nationally known Soapbox Derby and was sponsored by our Clearwater Optimists Club, whose motto is, "Friend of the Youth." Ed Erd-man, then president of the club, and other club members felt that a more ambitious project, which would permit service to youth for more than one day a year, was in order.

The membership was invited to contribute suggestions and Ernest Green proposed a waterborne Orange Crate Derby. His idea was to have the youth of the community race small boats activated by either paddles or sails. Major Clifford McKay and Clark Mills, a local boat builder, went right to work and produced a snub-nosed, flat-bottomed boat 7 ft. 10 in. long. So was born the Optimist Class Pram.

Action was immediately taken to copyright the sailboat and Major McKay set forth to promote the class. Local merchants were approached to sponsor a fleet. In return for paying the $75 purchase price for a boat, a merchant can place his trade name on the sides of the boat as an advertising medium.

Soon a fleet of 29 boats was sailing on Clearwater Bay and we found ourselves with a youth project that was workable every day of the year. Ernest Green and Ben Magrew were named co-chairmen of the project and took great delight in staging races and supervising the youngsters.

Word of the fleet spread. The nearby town of Dunedin started a similar fleet and others soon followed suit. Today, there are 700 or more Optimist Class Prams sailing on the bays and lakes of Florida. Fleets of 30 or more of the boats are racing in 22 different localities.

Young Clearwaler skippers receive instructions on sailing tactics from Optimist Club member.
 
Between races, boats are stored on end inside a fireproof building located near the shore.
 
As race time approaches, the young skippers and their friends lug the prams down to the water.

All rigging is kept simple. Here, the skippers are readying their boats for the day's races.

Our original 29-boat Clearwater fleet was housed in a large wooden building between races. The building caught fire one night and burned to the ground, destroying all the boats and breaking the hearts of the 29 young skippers. Howard Hartley immediately launched an appeal over radio station WTAN and the wonderful people of Clearwater responded by donating enough money to purchase a new fleet of 42 boats.

Jockeying for a star). The judge blares his last-minute instructions through a megaphone.
 
Parents often pitch in to help their children carry the prams back to the storage building.

The prams sail two Sundays a month. There are three races each day and the top skippers receive medals and ribbons for their efforts. I hope I have not given the impression that in using the term skippers I have been alluding to boys only. This is far from being the case. The girls in the fleet are on a par with the boys both as skippers and as good sports.

The fourth annual International Optimist Class Pram Regatta will be staged soon and we feel that 100 boats or more will compete, their varicolored hulls and sails making a striking sight as they dart over the waters of Clearwater Bay. The young skippers will manipulate these vessels like veterans, realizing that one infringement of the rigid sailing rules will disqualify them from any chance of winning either the International Championship Trophy or the Grand Fleet Trophy. I have often seen a youngster cry when the decision of a judge has gone against him, but he learns to take it and becomes a finer skipper from then on.

Local mothers whose children are not sufficiently big or strong enough to indulge in such contact sports as football encourage them to take up sailing. It keeps them out in the open air in clean competition with their young friends and teaches them to enlist the aid of wind and tide to win from their schoolmates and buddies. Two such mothers are Mrs. Ray Whitney and Mrs. Johnny Carrick. Their sons took up pram sailing and after winning many prizes, including the International Championship

Trophy, graduated to Snipes. In 1951, less than two years after leaving the pram fleet, they won the National Junior Snipe Championship at Charleston, N. C.

As indicated in the foregoing, the purposes of the Optimist Club in sponsoring these prams are to counteract to a certain degree juvenile delinquency and to create good sportsmanship and the love for sailing and clean competition. The prams are built especially for youths between the ages of 9 and 15. The Optimist Club, of Clear-water, Fla.. is the sole owner of the copyright. Besides the Florida fleets, others have been registered in such far-flung places as Texas, California, Wisconsin, and Canada. The present cost of the pram, which is planked with ^-in. plywood, is $78. We will be happy to answer any inquiries. Just drop a postcard to the Optimist Club, P. O. Box 52, Clearwater, Fla.

The organization that governs racing in the class is known as the Optimist Class Pram International Racing Association. A fleet charter is obtainable upon approval by the Optimist Club of Clearwater and payment of an initial fee of $10. Each charter is renewed annually upon payment of $1 per pram in the fleet. Each chartered fleet is entitled to participate in regattas sanctioned by the parent organization. A minimum of five prams is required in order to obtain a charter.

Sail on, little pram, with your cargo so young, Sail into the wind and let them have fun; Dig deep in the spray, "wet their face, wet their hair;

Then look, but you'll find no delinquency there! —Ernest A. Green

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