Sponars win as WINDMILLS RETURN TO FISHING BAY!
August 8-9 saw 6 Windmills attend the Fishing Bay YC (Deltaville, VA) annual regatta. This club has a long relationship with our class, including hosting the largest Windmill regatta ever (1969 Internationals with 60 boats). More recently, Windmills had a class start from 2009-2012 followed by our Nationals in 2013. We did not participate in the 2014 event but were welcomed back for 2015.
FBYC required 7 boats for a class start and unfortunately we had only 6 boats, thus putting us in the Portsmouth group with Frontrunners and San Juan 21s. After taking 2 of the 3 trophies and generally showing excellent sailing, the PRO for our 2013 Nationals indicated that he would work to change the requirements to 5 boats (or even 3) for a class start while we indicated that our expectations would be to increase Windmill numbers!
After a wonderful (and since 2012 when it was “discovered” by Sarah Steward) traditional Friday dinner at Merrior (Topping, VA), we faced 15-17 mph winds on Saturday with plenty of puffs well over 20 mph. This came with a reasonable chop for the 3 WLWL races set by the committee. National Champs Ralph & Matt Sponar (5060) dominated the first race to finish 1st among all the Portsmouth fleet. Hallie Bourne from Fleet 60 came down to crew for Allen Chauvenet (5586) and they navigated the tough upwind chop well enough to be second Windmill and 5th overall. The second race saw similar results although this time “B&B” pressed Go Blue to finish close astern and they were 4-5 in the overall results. In the 3rd race, Carroll Sparwasser (3800) & Maggie Arnesen (specializing in crewing in yellow Moorman Windmills) sailed a superb race and kept up the pressure on the Sponars who nonetheless took their 3rd consecutive Windmill bullet while Allen & Hallie were 3rd Windmill with the top Windmills 2-4-5 overall. John Coleman & Allie Sponar (3064) had the boat moving well until touching the weather mark and capsizing while doing a 360. To their credit, they righted the boat and completed the race! This allowed Miles Booth (5170) & David Burrell (Maggie’s fiancé out for his introduction to sailing!) to take the 4th Windmill position and lead 3064 by 2 points in the overall standings. Phil & Rachael Durand (5399) started the second race but sailed in as the conditions saw increasing winds.
When scores were posted the Sponars 1-4-2 for 7 points put them in the lead with a pesky San Juan 21 in second after 4-3-3 for 10 points. Allen & Hallie were 3rd after 5-5-5 and a Frontrunner was listed 4th with DNF-1-1. Only after the Sunday races were completed did we find that boat’s scores corrected to 2-1-1 which meant they were actually in the lead! A great dinner/party/dancing time followed until the setting of the sun saw all the tired Windmillers headed for sleep and hopes of lighter airs on Sunday!
Sunday indeed brought 5-10 mph winds enjoyed by all. The committee again set WLWL courses although the third and final race was shortened to WLW to get boats off the water a little sooner. While the Sponar team did not make good starts in the 2nd and 3rd races of the day, they were consistently able to find the best slants of wind. Not only did they beat the other 5 Windmills in all of the races (pressed slightly by Chauvenet/Bourne in the final two races) but their overall 2-1-1 was enough to take the win in the Portsmouth class when the Frontrunner, after trailing by 1 point going into the last race, wound up 12th, just enough to hold off Chauvenet/Bourne who placed 4-2-3 for the day and were thus third, one point out of second. Sparwasser/Arnesen were 5th overall in the Portsmouth class with the other two classes having only 1 boat in the top 5 (Frontrunner 2nd and San Juan 21 4th). All Windmills completed all of the Sunday races and had moments of excellent sailing. Another FBYC event greatly enjoyed by all who attended certainly encourages everyone to return in the years to come!
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