Dannebegers Retain District 3 Title
Shaking off a difficult regatta start and a later OCS, John & Anne Danneberger (5069) won the District 3 Championship for the 3rd consecutive year with 2-(5)-1-1-2-(OCS)-1-1-1 for a total of 9 points. Often applying pressure were Ralph & Allie Sponar (5702) who recorded 14 points after (4)-1-3-2-1-1-3-(4)-3 results. Allen & Christina Chauvenet (5586) made a charge in the final races to take 3rd with (5)-2-(4)-3-3-2-2-2-2 and a 16 point total in the 9 boat fleet. The Windmills were the largest monohull class in the Rock Hall regatta and especially appreciated the support from Lon Ethington/Meg Gimmi (FL) sailing borrowed 3651 and John/Natalie Deimel (3735) of the new Eire PA fleet 83 who not only towed their boat down to the event but also finished just 5 seconds behind Ralph & Sandy Sponar in Friday's downriver race.
After a calm Saturday morning, some wind filled in allowing 5 light to moderate air races. All races on both days were run over a simple WLW course but the long leeward leg challenged everyone to find the lanes of wind and the best jibing angles--always difficult. In the first race, Lon/Meg and John/Natalie also found a great wind lane upwind to round 1-2 with the Dannebergers eventually closing enough to finish between them. The fleet was commonly bunched at the weather mark and on the first part of the downwind leg. On Saturday the last boat was generally 1/2 way up the final beat when the winner crossed the line. Matt Sponar & mother Sandy sailed brilliant downwind legs in the 3rd and 4th races to finish 2-4 with Matt beating his father for the first time as skipper in the 3rd race!
Sunday brought similar conditions but fortunately with the light wind present at the planned 10AM start time. This allowed the completion of 4 races in a timely fashion. The Dannebergers took the pin end start and apparently won the first race--only after all were ashore did they and the fleet learn that their result was OCS! In the final 3 races, the Chauvenets found the optimal trim for the jib they borrowed from Pat Huntley and had superb upwind speed--pressing the Dannebergers in all races and leading them around the weather mark in the final 2 races. Each time the Chauvenets went well downwind but the Dannebergers were able to obtain an overlap at the leeward mark and win by a boat length of open water. The keys to downwind performance were heading up enough to maintain boat speed, bearing off in the puffs (which were small headers) and finding the wind lanes. Always hard, but always the objective in the conditions encountered.
Lansing Williams (5255) had an unfortunate capsize approaching the finish of the final race. This is mentioned only because in attempting to right the boat, crew weight on the board resulted in the board breaking in half! Ultimately this happened because the mast was stuck in the mud. This is the second time this season that damage has occurred (prior was to the DB well itself) when an otherwise good effort to right a capsized boat led to excessive force from the mast being stuck in the mud. The conclusion is to know the water depth & realize that if the mast is stuck in the mud pressure from below the submerged rail and pulling on the rail that is out of the water is likely a lot safer in preventing some sort of damage. Fortunately in this case, Lance was able to obtain a superb new board immediately (Happy Father's Day!).
All enjoyed the sailing, camaraderie and conversations. Hopefully we will all return next year with a growing Rock Hall fleet and more guests bringing us to 12-15 entries. Already the Windmill is the only really active one-design fleet in the club so that's a plus in attracting new sailors like the Penders who had several excellent races and were pushing closely on those at the top of the fleet! |
