Juniors in the 1950s

FBYC History....

By the 1950s, junior war babies and baby boomers began their involvement in club racing programs. The 1940s concept of the “Junior Seamanship Academy” meeting for classroom instruction during weeknights in Richmond seems to have faded with the club’s move for Urbanna to Deltaville in 1949. By mid-decade of the 1950s, the junior program was relegated to a couple of hours on several summer weekends at FBYC.

While there was no designated junior boat at that time, many junior migrated to the wooden Alcort Sailfish because of its small size and modest lateen rig. However, some older juniors began to move into the wooden cat-rigged 11-foot Penguin that was still raced primarily by adults in large, hotly-contested fleets. One of these juniors was Mary Reid Dunn, teenage daughter of Reid Dunn, one of our founding members, and recipient of the Henry Hutcheson Junior Memorial Trophy in 1953. She received a lot of press coverage when selected to race in the CBYRA Junior Championship held at the U.S. Naval Academy in 1954. The July 12, 1954 Richmond Times-Dispatch described her qualifications for this competition:

And, after winning the Penguin class at FBYC’s Annual Regatta held later in the summer, the August 23, 1954 Times-Dispatch admiringly exclaimed:

Another junior of this era also became a media darling. Wunderkind Perry Sinnickson is shown at the helm of a Sailfish in the accompanying picture published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch of August 21, 1955. The picture was captioned as follows:

The next year, she extended her success over much older sailors by moving into the Penguin class. The June 7, 1956 Richmond News-Leader pictured Perry and her crew, Nancy Zoppa, crossing the finish line in first place for the second time that day in a club series event. A three-column newspaper article bore the headline: Skill, Not Luck, Won Race for the 10-Year Old.

Later that year, Perry was awarded the Henry Hutcheson Junior Memorial Trophy, undoubtedly the youngest recipient of this trophy in our club’s history.

Other distinguished juniors during the 1950s were Johnny Hawksworth, Anne Eppes, Jack Moseley, and Ray Munsch.

As evidence that little has changed in the last 50 years, the picture here of spectators observing the Chesapeake Bay Midget Championships held in Annapolis in 1958 shows a group of parents intently and anxiously focused on the racecourse, no doubt restraining their instinctive urges to coach from the sidelines. The two ladies on the right are FBYC mothers. Sue Sinnickson (with hat) and Ray Roper (with sunglasses) watch as Perry Sinnickson and Randy Roper compete in the regatta.