Windmill Class Association
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| Windmill 2017 District 3 Mid- Atlantic Championships(RHYC ONE DE at Rock Hall YC, Maryland | June 17 - 18 |
| Story |
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RHYC REGATTA HAS RECORD WINDMILL FLEET A record 18 Windmills entered the RHYC Invitational with outside teams coming from FL, NH, PA, OH, VA, NC and KS to join the group of local sailors. Winds were strong with marked chop for the 4 Saturday races with even heavier winds and higher waves for the 1 race sailed on Sunday. One illness plus the difficult conditions meant that only 17 boats showed and 15 actually started races--but others got out on the water as crews and a great time was had by all the sailors. Races were all WLW except the Sunday race which was WLWLW--a long battle in tough conditions. RHYC's own Ralph & Matt Sponar (5702) has an inauspicious first race when they hit the leeward pin on the starting line, hit the weather mark and hit the leeward mark. They made an amazing comeback only to learn that they were also OCS in this race which was won by the outstanding sailing of Alan & Stephanie Taylor (4051) of NC. No hesitation--Ralph & Matt simply won the rest of the races, discarded the OCS and dominated the finish results to keep the District 3 Windmill Championship at the RHYC (the Dannebergers having won it the past several years). Second place in the regatta went to Midwinter Champions Chris and Nancy Demler (5705) who overcame forgetting to round the offset mark in the first race to record (6)-5-2-2-2, pushing the Sponars in the last 3 races. An amazing 3rd place went to one of the lightest weight teams Larry Christian of NH sailing with Allie Sponar of PA (5408) whose record of 2-3-(5)-3-4 included some absolutely spectacular planning! RHYC Junior sailors David Manley & Steve Cropper (3651) whose record of 3-2-(6)-6-5 was 4th overall and 2nd among Windmill district 3 boats. They defeated 1 former National Champion and 2 former national runner-up teams among others. They also performed a capsize and self-rescue drill (not intentionally) but were clever enough to carry this out after the FINISH of the final race. Note should also be made of RHYC junior sailor Max Penders (4262) crewed by his father Jon who pushed far more experience teams very hard in these difficult and trying conditions. Everyone enjoyed the hospitality, the courses (thanks PRO Lee Urbani) and the venue. We had a great Windmill dinners at Waterman's Friday night and at RHYC Saturday night where Mike performed his usual magic in the kitchen, including 2 special ordered vegan dinners! In spite of setting an all-time record for Windmill entries in the regatta, EVERYONE hopes to return next year and help set a new record! We'd be delighted to introduce anyone in the club with an interest in small boat racing to the Windmill and the class certainly thanks all who made this event possible! |
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