Great boat, great sailors in FBYC history....

Rough Passage (a.k.a. Jasyto)

by Jere Dennison

The Mariners Museum in Newport News has carved out a special niche for the display of Hampton O-D #1, originally named Jasyto, amongst endless galleries of nautical history. She is a veteran of almost 70 years and symbolizes the birth of the area’s most popular indigenous one-design sailboat class. We may take special satisfaction that our Club has perhaps the strongest link to the history of Hampton O-D #1 of any club on the Chesapeake Bay. From 1940 to the early 1950’s and renamed Rough Passage , she became an integral part of the racing scene at our predecessor club, UYC, and later at FBYC after the move to the present location in 1949.

J. Marshall Moseley, a founding member and past Commodore, provided historical insight into her arrival at our Club in a letter written a decade before his death:

I was once her proud owner. She was built in 1935 by Vincent Serio, first owner was his brother-in-law Sid Vincent. I bought her in early 1940 from Jim Stanley, who lived in Richmond and sailed her at Squaw Lake in New Hampshire. I created quite a commotion when I showed up at the Norfolk Yacht Club regatta with the prototype HOD (Hampton One Design) whose whereabouts had been unknown. Having achieved a rather dismal racing record in 1940 due, I thought, to poor sails and a heavy hull, I sold her to Henry Hutchinson and bought #22 from Harold Cox.

Some may recognize the name of Henry Hutchinson, the Hampton’s second Club owner, who was instrumental in holding the fledgling Urbanna Yacht Club together during World War II while serving as its Commodore for three years, 1942-44. The Henry Hutchinson Trophy is our Club’s oldest perpetual award, having been deeded by the Board after Henry’s premature death at age 35 in 1947 resulting from complications during an appendectomy.

In 1947, Rough Passage was purchased by clubmember Lloyd Emory who was the owner of a daffodil farm in nearby Gloucester County. Not only were his skill and prowess a legend on the Bay, but also was his ability to consume vast quantities of rum-laced “Gloucester” Cokes without normally impairing his sailing performance. Lloyd enjoyed immediate success with Rough Passage and won the H.O.D. National Championship in August 1947.

Accordingly, the Urbanna Yacht Club hosted the 1948 Hampton One-Design Championship in August of that year. Although Lloyd led the series after the two Saturday races and seemed destined to repeat as champion, those “Gloucester” Cokes probably caught up with him on Sunday, and he finished in 3rd place overall. The Richmond Time-Dispatch covered the event and on August 22 published this historic photograph of Rough Passage posed with Lloyd, his crew Brown Farinholt, and the HOD designer, Vincent Serio. (Interestingly, Brown Farinholt was the great uncle of current members Rick and Lee Farinholt.)

Lloyd continued to successfully campaign Rough Passage , winning numerous Bay-wide events, until selling her in the early 1950’s in order to obtain a newer, more competitive Hampton hull. After leaving the Club, Passage likely changed hands many times before her ultimate retirement in the Mariners Museum with her original name, Jasyto , restored.

 

Did you know?

FBYC can boast another HOD National Champion among the ranks of its members. In 1954, the late George Roper sailing hull #465 named Impulse found his way to the top of fleet. His daughter, Nancy Roper Potts is the wife of Rives Potts who served as Project Manager and crewmember on the America’s Cup 12-meter Freedom in 1980. Both remain active members of FBYC.