Our newest Life Membership has been a member of Fishing Bay Yacht Club for 56 years. He has contributed to FBYC in enormous ways, many of which today, we take for granted as having always been the norm. His contributions are evident in so many areas of our club.

As a competitor, he represented Fishing Bay with with Rappahannock, one of the most competitive boats on the East Coast in the 1970s. Starting in 1974, he sailed in Southern Ocean Racing Circuit and later that year winning the CBYRA Southern Bay High Point award. They did the 1975 Annapolis to Newport Race (in which Ted Turner’s Tenacious was dismasted) and did the 1976 Newport to Bermuda Race. His boat was one of the first FBYC offshore yachts to compete in national events flying the FBYC burgee.

As a volunteer, between 1973 and 2002 he served on the Board as Historian, Publicity Chair, Log Streamer, Winter Programs, Fleet Captain, Rear Commodore, Vice Commodore, Commodore, Member at Large, and Long Range Planning Chair. When FBYC embarked on the plan to build the new clubhouse, he, along with Jim Rogers, stepped forward to serve as the Chairs of the Capital Campaign. Even thought there was no tax deduction for gifts to a club, they thought they could raise $250,000. They ended up massively exceeding the goal, rising over $440,000. In recognition of their efforts, the co-chairs were awarded the 2003 Matthew Fontaine Maury Bowl for the outstanding contributions to sailing at FBYC.

His vision was for the club and its members to be competitive with and recognized on a larger stage, a vision which continues today. He worked on and in the racing program, being an advocate for Windward/Leeward course, purchasing inflatable drop marks and upgrading the Committee Boats to Mr. Roberts. In 1982, he donated the perpetual Competition Trophy, awarded each year to the FBYC skippers who have most successfully represented FBYC in racing events conducted by other clubs. In recent years, he has continued to volunteer on Race Committee, providing mark boat support for events such as the Stingray Point Regatta.

More recently he has moved from sailboat racing to trawler cruising.  He has taken his Grand Banks 46 Chessie with co-owner Jim Rogers on summer cruises to New England the last three summers, flying the FBYC burgee and still representing the club well. In 2012, Chessie and her owners were awarded the Fairfa Cup by the NYYC in recognition of being the motor yacht that is judged overall as best representing the tradition and spirit of yachting and the club, based on the yacht’s preparation, presentation, flag etiquette, seamanship, courtesy and handling.

The criterion for Life Membership is deliberately vague, leaving it to the Membership Committee and Board to know one when they see one. By now it should be obvious making a decision in this case was not hard.

Please join me in recognizing and congratulating our newest Life Member: Beverley L. Crump