A longtime tradition of sailboat racing on Urbanna Creek and the Rappahannock River of Hampton One design sailboats was back this past weekend as nine boats competed at the Saturday and Sunday Urbanna Hampton One regatta.
The races started in the creek on Saturday morning with all boats jockeying for position at the starting line in the creek and racing to the race course finish line in the river. The distance race out on Saturday morning was won by Charlie McCoy and Alex Jacob of Norfolk while the race back was won by Jackson Montague of Urbanna and Laura Rhodes of Hampton.
The overall champions of the six races on Saturday and Sunday were Jackson Montague and Rhodes, who won all three races on Saturday and finished second, third and fifth in the three races on Sunday. Second place went to Dr. Gordy Stokes and Dr. Kerri Stokes of Norfolk, and third place to Blake Goodwin of Yorktown.
The Hampton One sailboat was the boat design chosen by a Hampton Yacht Club (HYC) committee that was formed in the early 1930s to select a sloop design for competitive racing on Chesapeake Bay. It was designed in the Hampton, Va., area by Vincent Serio in 1934. It quickly became one of the most popular small craft racing sailboats on the Chesapeake Bay with active fleets ranging from Norfolk to Annapolis.
The Town of Urbanna has a long history with Hampton One Design racing. The Urbanna Yacht Club (UYC), founded in 1939, hosted the third Hampton One Design National Championships in 1948.
UYC member Lloyd Emory won the championship trophy in 1947 at the HYC races in Hampton, which brought the championships to Urbanna the next year. A tradition that has remained to this day is that the national meet is conducted the next year on the winner’s home waters. The UYC club moved in 1949 to Deltaville and was renamed Fishing Bay Yacht Club (FBYC).
