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As a member since 1955, I suppose my advancing years at least partially (but not uniquely) qualify me to be the current historian for the Fishing Bay Yacht Club. As such, I have endeavored to chronicle many intriguing stories from our past that are posted below but that first appeared in a series of history columns for the club’s monthly membership publication called the Log . However, major credit must be given to MacDonald Wellford, a founding member and first historian, who fanatically maintained scrapbooks on club history from our inception until the late 1960’s. Mac kindly turned these scrapbooks over to me before his death as the club approached its 50th anniversary in 1989, and these represent the primary source for much of the material dealing with the early years of the club’s existence. Second, credit must also go to the Richmond Times-Dispatch and News-Leader, both of which newspapers covered club racing and social activities in extensive detail until about 1970 and whose articles Mac religiously pasted onto the pages of his scrapbooks. And third, credit is due to the many members who have contributed their ideas, personal recollections, and encouragement to this effort.
While not the region’s oldest yacht club, the Fishing Bay Yacht Club certainly ranks among the senior sailing institutions on the Chesapeake Bay by virtue of its founding in 1939. The story of FBYC spans an era from pre-World War II when wooden racing yachts set Egyptian cotton sails, through the rapid transition to fiberglass hulls and Dacron sails on aluminum masts in the 1950’s and 60’s, and into the present day when exotic high-tech composites dominate marine-construction.
Jere Dennison
Historian
Photos
Junior Week Official Group Photos
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