by Larry Chowning
Chesapeake Bay Magazine of Annapolis, Maryland, profiled Deltaville along with five other waterfront communities—Annapolis, Chesapeake City, Solomons, St. Michaels and Portsmouth—in a special August edition called “Weekends on the Waters.”
During a public comment period at the Middlesex County Board of Supervisors meeting on August 6, Lud Kimbrough of Deltaville reported that the story in the magazine was a nine-page article along with four pages of advertising by Deltaville businesses.
Kimbrough reported that subscribers of the magazine own 47,000 boats; a third are sailboats; and 18,000 are over 26-feet in length. The subscribers spend $262 million a year on boating activities; 30% spend more than $10,000 annually on boating; and a third live in Virginia, meaning 15,000 boat owners saw the article.
He went on to say that Fishing Bay Yacht Club on Stove Point in Deltaville recently held its junior week-long sailing school with 150 juniors participating and ended the week with a junior regatta where 130 youth participated.
The Leukemia Cup Regatta was held recently in Deltaville and raised $140,000 to fight Leukemia. The regatta brought hundreds of sailors and visitors into the county, said Kimbrough.
“Why does all this happen? In the words of Chesapeake Bay Magazine, Deltaville is surrounded by some of the best sailing, cruising, fishing, and paddling waters on the entire Chesapeake Bay,” said Kimbrough.
“This (Deltaville) is God’s gift to Middlesex County and we need to do everything possible to encourage and support local businesses, visitors, and vacation homeowners who come here and contribute to our tax base. Because of that gift, the entire county benefits and we need to cherish and nurture it in anyway possible,” said Kimbrough.
The Chesapeake Bay article states Deltaville is a “singular town with more boats than residents.”
It also states, “Deltaville’s pointy peninsula sticks out into the Chesapeake Bay like Jimmy Durante’s nose. It is bounded on the north by the lovely Rappahannock River, on the east by the Bay and on the south by the charming Piankatank River. . . which is why Deltaville proudly declares itself the boating capital of the Chesapeake Bay.”
