Windmill Class president, Ralph Sponar, III, and son, Matthew Sponar, won the 2015 Windmill National Championship Regatta on Sunday, July 26, at the Rock Hall YC. The Chesapeake Bay offered excellent conditions for the three-day event. Light wind Friday built into 18-25 knots with three-foot seas by Sunday. Twenty-seven boats from across the United States, including California, Florida, Kansas, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, New Hampshire, and Virginia competed in the 10-race event.
Ralph began his sailing career in Bermuda in the 1970s. As a teenager, he raced Luder 16s, crewed on a variety of small boats, and worked his way up to skippering. Ralph won the International Luder 16 Championship in 1984. When he married a fellow Luder 16 skipper, Sandy (Holt), careers and children took priority. They had to put their passion for sailing on hold for a few years. The couple spent a lot of time researching a small, affordable, easy-to-rig dinghy to sail with an active racing fleet, something that could be stored in a garage. In 2008, Ralph purchased his first Windmill and now has his own fleet of three.
According to Sponar, “The Windmill is a great high-performance dinghy. It is very sensitive to sail controls and will reward a good skipper with excellent upwind speed and will easily jump up on a plane in a moderate breeze.”
Ralph is dedicated to improving, building, and modernizing the fleet, as well as mentoring younger sailors and promoting junior regattas.
The Windmill is a 15 1/2 foot racing dinghy designed by boat-builder Clark Mills in 1953. Having designed the Optimist Pram in 1947, Clark saw a need for a two-person high-performance dinghy that can be inexpensively constructed by amateur builders. The class has since evolved with the times to allow fiberglass construction and aluminum spars, yet both wooden and fiberglass Windmills remain equally competitive. Being a non-trapeze, non-spinnaker boat makes the Windmill accessible to a wide range of sailing skills. windmillclass.com
