Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin named the month of June 2025 as “Chesapeake Bay Deadrise Month” through a proclamation read to a crowd on Sunday, June 1, at the “Yorktown Battle of the Boats” annual workboat races.
On March 25, 1988, the Virginia legislature voted to designate the Chesapeake Bay deadrise as the official state boat, recognizing its significant role in the cultural and economic life of the Commonwealth.
It is believed that boatbuilders first began experimenting with wooden V-deadrise construction styles in the 1880s on the Eastern Shore of Virginia and Maryland to accommodate a growing soft-shell blue crab market. The railroad had expanded down the Eastern Shore, providing an avenue for watermen to market and transport perishable soft-shell crabs to big-city markets in a timely manner.
Large numbers of crabs were being caught in the thin waters of Tangier Sound near Maryland’s Smith Island and Virginia’s Tangier Island. Watermen needed a boat with a shallow draft to work in the sound and a wide, stable platform for working and traveling over dangerous waters while sailing to and from the fishing grounds. The deadrise style was perfect.
On Chesapeake Bay, choppy water conditions, large and diverse inshore fisheries, availability of wood for planks, and talented backyard boatbuilders all came together at the right time in the 1880s, allowing the deadrise style to be perfected and spread from one end of the Chesapeake to the other. The deadrise style is, to this day, a preferred working platform on Chesapeake Bay.
The governor picked the Yorktown racing event to make his representative as hundreds of people came on Sunday to watch the races along the town’s boardwalk. The proclamation was read by Virginia Commissioner of the Virginia Marine Resources Commission Jamie Green and its states that “the Chesapeake Bay Deadrise, ruggedly built to navigate the bay’s winding water-ways and shallow inlets, was locally designed and developed to work shoal water while withstanding its ever-changing weather, standing as a testament to the ingenuity, resilience, and industrious spirit of Virginia’s watermen” and is recognized as the Virginia State Boat.
“Virginia’s watermen, through their tireless labor and deep-rooted connection to the bay, have played an indispensable role in shaping the culture, economy and identify of the Commonwealth, passing down their knowledge and skills through generations, ensuring that the legacy of the working watermen endures and the . . . deadrise with its distinctive lines, sturdy wooden hull and ability to withstand the changing moods of the bay, symbolizes not only the perseverance of Virginia’s watermen but also the rich maritime heritage that defines our coastal communities.
“It is fitting that we honor this iconic vessel and the men and women who have built their livelihoods upon the waters of the Chesapeake Bay, ensuring that the traditions of Virginia’s commercial fishing industry remain a vital part of our Commonwealth.”
A framed copy of the proclamation was presented to Allen Holston, founder of Workboat Life, and the York County Board of Supervisors, who hosted the annual event in Yorktown on the York River.
As for the races, for the second year in a row, Capt. Shannon Gay in Rainbow Chaser, a wooden deadrise, won the premiere “Yorktown King of the Bay Large Diesel” event. Rainbow Chaser was built by the late Willard Norris of Deltaville, Va., who, over the years, has been featured many times in National Fisherman's boatbuilding pages.
