Clark Mills and the Optimist Pram

Most sailors, or at least most racing sailors are familiar with the Optimist Pram, but may not know the story of how or why it was developed. That is one of the reasons we are building the McKay Creek Boat Shop at Heritage Village. Clark Mills designed the pram for the Clearwater Florida Optimist Club, the Document below will explain the beginning of what would become the International Optimist Pram now sailed around the world.   PramStory 20 years   Contribute to the McKay Creek Boat Shop to help preserve the history of Clark Mills and other boat builders in Pinellas County....

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A Snipe named Honey, and the birth of a new center for the maritime history of Pinellas County Florida

  It seemed like a simple thing, Gene Fleming was looking for a home for Honey (the 1947 Snipe built by Clark Mills and sailed to the 1951 National Championship by Francis Seavy) and wanted to donate it to Heritage Village. The Village, Pinellas County’s 21-acre living history museum, already had the Clark Mills designed and built Sun Cat and early Optimist pram in storage because they had no place to display the boats. The obvious solution was to build a boat shop in the Village to display the boats and the maritime history of Pinellas County, Florida.  After a few years of planning and fund raising we have the 1440 sq. ft. McKay Creek Boat Shop under construction in the heart of the Village where it joins 28 other historic structures. The building is now through the rough framing stage and is ready for exterior siding and interior finish work. The project is being funded by donations to the Pinellas County Historical Society and built by volunteers. We are still in need of funds to complete the construction and exhibitions. If you would like to help, please follow the links at the bottom of the page.     Sponsors...

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