In the depths of World War II, the major efforts of all members of the fledgling Urbanna Yacht Club (predecessor to FBYC for those who didnt read last months column) were directed toward winning the War. However, the burgee continued to fly, and UYC did not cease operations as so many other clubs were forced to do.
Nevertheless, racing activity on the Chesapeake Bay was severely curtailed due to the many skippers and crews on military leave and due to travel constraints dictated by gas rationing.
In 1944, the Virginia Sailing Association, then consisting of UYC, Rappahannock River Yacht Club, Hampton Yacht Club, and Norfolk Yacht and Country Club, decided to consolidate the annual regattas of the individual …
FBYC Opening Day Commissioning Dinner invitations are in the mail.
A fabulous menu is anticipated from Chef Alain around waterfowl a l'orange and a special dessert of FBYC - chocolate marquise with a couli of rasberry.
Please RSVP by April 1st. No late reservations accepted.
After opening day racing, the ceremonies begin at 5:45pm. Proper attire requested.
Blessing of the Fleet - 6:00pm
The Commissioning - 6:15pm
Refreshments immediately following
Formal Seated Dinner - 8:00pm
Dancing to follow
Opening Weekend Social Events
Kick off the season .
Drop in for the first Friday Night Rendezvous - April 12 at 7:00 p.m.
The sailing season is about to begin and have we got plans for you!
Stop by Friday night …
The weather at Key West Race Week is always the story and this year was no exception. The first and fifth days were better suited for sunbathingno wind and no races. Of course sunbathing is not bad in January. The second and fourth days had good tactical racing in light air. The middle day had medium to strong wind that resulted in a chop that was as challenging as any on the Chesapeake.
Three Long Island J/29s, Hustler (Tony and John Esposito), Tomahawk (Bruce Lockwood) and Showdown (Bijan Risadi), swept the top places at KWRC. The four Fishing Bay boats made a good showing in the middle of the 17-boat fleet. Patriot (Case Whittemore) was 5th, Killshot (Bob …
On March 16th at 9:00 am, we will have our Spring Clean-Up of the grounds, house and docks. Plans are to clean up the grounds, plant grass seed, prune shrubs, clean up the porches and outside furniture. Also nail down boards on the docks. Bring your shovels, rakes, chainsaws and hammers to get your club ready for the 2002 season! If anyone would like to donate perennials, such as daylilies or other ground covers, please bring them. David Hazlehurst and Dick Cole will provide the volunteers with a light breakfast and lunch. Please email Bob Kates at scam97109@yahoo.com or call 804-776-6950 (day or evening) if you will be able to come. Rain date is March 23rd.
Following a highly successful launch a year ago, the Christchurch Leukemia Cup Junior Challenge Regatta returns to the water Saturday, May 4. Young sailors from nearly a dozen area high schools will be competing for racing and fundraising honors during the regatta, which will be sailed on the Rappahannock River at the Christchurch sailing facility.
Christchurch sailing coach Josh Gwilliam is inviting all area high school sailors who are interested in taking part to join the fleet, to have fun and to help support a worthy cause. The competition will be sailed in 420s and some boats are available for teams that register early. The event is sponsored by Christchurch School, the Virginia Interscholastic Sailing Association (VISA), the Leukemia & …
Our club began life, not as the Fishing Bay Yacht Club, but as the Urbanna Sailing Association in 1939 under the loom of imminent hostilities in Europe and Asia. Within a year, the Association incorporated as the Urbanna Yacht Club. The club had an enrollment of 35 sailing yachts and 63 members, had rented quarters in Urbanna, and had joined the Chesapeake Bay Yacht Racing Association. Within three years, an active racing program was severely curtailed by the outbreak of World War II, and many of our members joined the armed services, representing practically every branch of Americas fighting forces. Pictured here is the schooner Nighthawk shown on race committee duty for the cruising division during UYCs Virginia …
Having been enticed by our persuasive Commodore Scott to contribute a series of history columns to the Log about the formative years of FBYC, I will cheerfully comply. As a clubmember since 1955, I suppose my credentials at least partially (but not uniquely) qualify me to undertake this task. However, major credit must be given to MacDonald Wellford, a founding member and early club historian, who fanatically maintained scrapbooks on club history from its inception in 1939 until the late 1960s. Mac kindly loaned these scrapbooks to me before his death, and these will be source for much of the material dealing with the early years of the clubs existence. Second credit must go to the Richmond Times-Dispatch …
As you may know Jere Dennison and Mary Anne Hooker are a committee assigned the duty to approve decorations to be displayed in the new clubhouse. Jere has found an old burgee of our club when it was located in Urbanna at the time of its founding in 1939. A volunteer graphic artist has designed the image at the left which will be featured in the Commissioning of the new builing on April 13. Please save the date and plan to attend this once in a lifetime event.
We understand protocol requires the seniormost burgee to be on the left, and since the one with a "U" is historical and not active, the new burgee must be on the left …
As indicated in this month's Log, this year we will use the new Rule 26 in our starts. More information is available at the bottom left hand corner of our web site and at US Sailing - Rule 26 Starting No longer will there be a 10-minute Warning Gun, a 5-minute Prep Gun and the Start. We will now have the 5-minuteWarning Gun with the class flag, the 4-minute Prep Gun and "P" flag, the 1-minute horn and lowering of the "P" flag, and the Starting Gun and lowering the class flag. And the next start will not necessarily follow in 5 minutes. It will take some study - both for our fleets and our skippers - to learn the new system …
A wonderful new setting has been created with the upstairs screen porch facing Fishing Bay. The railing has been installed - by the time the bugs are out we will have screening on the walls and ceiling fans to stir the air.
The exterior of the building is almost finished. The upstairs porches will be getting railings. The beautiful new mahoghany Doors made by Mike Karn are on site and will be hung soon - thereby enclosing the building and allowing the heat to be turned on.
Shortly the electricians will complete their rough-in and Northwind can begin the hang the interior finishes. More new photos taken on January 13 are also available.
Tucker Thompson this Friday the 11th...door opens at 6pm...drinks and food...program starts at 7pm...KEY WEST RACE WEEK!!...door prizes from West Marine...Columbian Business Conference Center...2324 Pump Rd....Richmond....Tucker Thompson, "hot shot sailor" from Annapolis who writes "Tucker's Tips" for Spin Sheet. Tucker Thompson was a member of the America True America's Cup Challenge and is the former head racing coach for the Annapolis Yacht Club junior program. $10 door fee....
Correction - Virgil Miller decorated the Yacht Club for the Deltaville lights boat cruise on Jackson Creek. The Christmas tree is the Flagpole, and the 2 boats are Mobjacks in the parking lot. Thanks for a great job Virgil!
Last week we held the first Board meeting with the new Board that was elected at CCV in November. Newly installed as Board members are
Elizabeth Peabody Staas - Secretary
Allan Heyward, Jr. - Offshore Division Commander
Jay Buhl, III - One Design Division Commander and
Randy Alley - Log Streamer.Retiring from the Board were Tom Roberts, who did a great job on the Log the last 2 years, Jim Black and Stuart Burnett - who ran One-design and Offshore last year, and Craig Massey - House.
Several months ago our web site software was upgraded by Baymountain, a company in Richmond led by our Offshore Lt. Commander, Mark Wensell. The upgrade was completed - except the ability to search articles on the main FBYC web page. So recently the main page has displayed all the posted articles. Now we are pleased to say that the search capability has returned, so the number of articles, and therefore the time to load the page into your browser, has been reduced.
You can find older articles by clicking on Search, or the Subject Images. Thanks to Mark and Baymountain for providing and continuing to manage the software and infrastructure for our web site. Please let us know if you see …
The Sailing Events Committee met on Monday November 19 and worked up a schedule to distribute for discussion purposes. A copy in Excel is attached. The plan is to meet again on December 11 at 7:30PM after the FBYC Board meeting to go over any suggestions received or necessary changes. Anyone who has any comments or suggestions is asked to send them to one
of the
following:
Dick Cole, Vice Commodore - sdcole@sprintmail.com
Jay Buhl, One Design Div. Cdr. - jbuhl@amf.com
Allan Heyward, Offshore Div. Cdr. - heyward@cwhlaw.com
Sam Stoakley, Cruising Div. Cdr. - sstoakley@bbandt.com
The new building is progressing quickly. You can now see that the windows and skylights have been installed, and most of the siding is on the building.
Shown above is brick stoop where the rear fire stair door will be. Upstairs you can see the windows facing east toward the pool. The heating and air conditioning units are installed and most of the HVAC and plumbing rough-ins are complete.
More photos taken on November 17 are also available.
You are invited to the 2002 Sailing Events Planning Meeting. The purpose of the meeting is to begin to plan the sailing schedule for the coming year for the Offshore, One Design, Junior Activities and Cruising Divisions. We are interested in your input and opinions as to what events we should schedule, how many, when, what should be changed, added, or deleted. It would be especially helpful for the past Offshore Division Cdr, One Design Division Cdr. and all Fleet Captains to canvas your sailors for what they want. We also need to consider how to get more boats on the water for all fleets.The meeting will be held on November 19, 6 PM, in the Second Floor Auditorium …
We are searching for old photographs and other items of significance portraying the long history of FBYC to permanently display on the walls of our new clubhouse. Currently we are in possession of a small number of photographs from the 1940s through the 1960s scavenged from scrapbooks maintained by the late Mac Wellford, a founding member of the yacht club in 1939. But we would like to assemble a more complete collection that will commemorate our history through the present day. If you have meaningful items from any era that may be appropriate to display, I would appreciate your contacting me with your ideas. Thank you.
Today Harken announces the release of the first installment of Harkens New Competitive Boathandling CD series, Harken's Competitive J/24 Boathandling. A copy of the Harken press release is attached.
The video was filmed by Will Crump and features Team Satisfaction, Blake Kimbrough, Lucy and Anthony Kupersmith and Will Crump. A sample of the Video footage from the CD is available here.
In the depths of World War II, the major efforts of all members of the fledgling Urbanna Yacht Club (predecessor to FBYC for those who didnt read last months column) were directed toward winning the War. However, the burgee continued to fly, and UYC did not cease operations as so many other clubs were forced to do.
Nevertheless, racing activity on the Chesapeake Bay was severely curtailed due to the many skippers and crews on military leave and due to travel constraints dictated by gas rationing.
FBYC Opening Day Commissioning Dinner invitations are in the mail.
After opening day racing, the ceremonies begin at 5:45pm. Proper attire requested.
on March 2nd, 2002
at the Columbian Center.
And the registration forms for Junior Week are available at 
under the loom of imminent hostilities in Europe and Asia. Within a year, the Association incorporated as the Urbanna Yacht Club. The club had an enrollment of 35 sailing yachts and 63 members, had rented quarters in Urbanna, and had joined the Chesapeake Bay Yacht Racing Association. Within three years, an active racing program was severely curtailed by the outbreak of World War II, and many of our members joined the armed services, representing practically every branch of Americas fighting forces. Pictured here is the schooner Nighthawk shown on race committee duty for the cruising division during UYCs Virginia …
As you may know Jere Dennison and Mary Anne Hooker are a committee assigned the duty to approve decorations to be displayed in the new clubhouse. Jere has found an old burgee of our club when it was located in Urbanna at the time of its founding in 1939. A volunteer graphic artist has designed the image at the left which will be featured in the Commissioning of the new builing on April 13. Please save the date and plan to attend this once in a lifetime event.
A wonderful new setting has been created with the upstairs screen porch facing Fishing Bay. The railing has been installed - by the time the bugs are out we will have screening on the walls and ceiling fans to stir the air. 
The exterior of the building is almost finished. The upstairs porches will be getting railings. The beautiful 
The new building is progressing quickly. You can now see that the windows and skylights have been installed, and most of the siding is on the building. 
Today Harken announces the release of the first installment of Harkens New Competitive Boathandling CD series, Harken's Competitive J/24 Boathandling. A copy of the Harken press release is attached.