The story of Clancy begins with Bob Pickett. Born in 1929 and raised in Florida, Pickett was a boat nut. His wife Erica settled in Anacortes in 1971, opening Flounder Bay Boat Lumber. Pickett was something of a local fixture. His sister-in-law would later note that Pickett “had a strong sense of how to enjoy life, including others, and build community. Boating did all three…” He helped found OARS, a rowing club in Anacortes, and pushed for the establishment of Seafarer’s Memorial Park. He also took an interest in making boat building more accessible to amateur builders.
The boat that was to become Clancy started as Pickett’s second effort to make boat building accessible to the amateur and was developed “in response to the need for a safe, small, lightweight, high-performance sailboat of distinction that was fully within the reach of any beginning builder. He commissioned the design from Richard S. Kolin, a Pacific Northwest boat designer, builder, and wooden boat teacher. Known for more traditional small craft, such as the lapstrake as Heidi 12 skiff and Catherine 14 Whitehall-style pulling boat, Kolin designed Clancy to be built as simply as possible using what Pickett described as stitch and glue (in truth, it is more of a hybrid between stitch and glue and plywood-on-frame). The 10-ft cat-rigged sailboat was named after Kolin’s dog, a fact reflected in the Clancy’s “C-Bone” class insignia.