Fall  Issue

By Allen Chauvenet, et al

                 Arthur Anosov (5527), the 2009 National Champion, successfully defended his Windmill Southern Title at the Davis Island Yacht Club November 28-29.  Reflecting the growing Windmill activity in Florida, a competitive fleet of 16 boats turned out for the event. Unfortunately (and atypically) the wind failed to cooperate and only 4 races were held. Three of them had a rather short windward and then finish to leeward

course.  However, the races were very close and produced a different winner in each heat! Additionally, the fleet had plenty of time to talk, look at fittings on each other's boats and look forward to the coming 2010 sailing season!

 

   The first race (and the only one with two laps) saw John Jennings and Julie Valdez in command with superb upwind sailing and maintaining control downwind as they found the good shifts and puffs to stay ahead of Anosov and the Ethan/Trudy Bixby team. New Windmillers Dede and Beau Plessner (showing that one can learn from just working for Ethan!) sailed a great race to take 4th ahead of Dave Ellis, who used 14-year-old Adam Wright from the Clearwater Sailing Center as crew. Adam learned to sail in August and seemed to enjoy himself.

 

   The second race found light and very shifty winds up the first leg.  Lon Ethington and Meg Gimmi found a zephyr and played it just perfectly to reach the weather mark first. The Bixbys were around second but could not overtake Lon and Meg on the run to the leeward mark, which became the finish when the race committee shortened the course.  Anosov took 3rd ahead of Jennings while class webmaster Alan Taylor and Sue  Nuyda (sailing a borrowed/demo boat arranged by Daniel Fontaine and sails from Dave Ellis) moved up from an opening 14th to round out the top 5.  In spite of some waiting, no wind appeared and the Race Committee sent the fleet in for dinner.

 

     This left Jennings, Bixby and Anosov all with 5 points after two races.

 

   Sunday saw just enough breeze to get out to the race area, after which the committee set a one-lap course. Anosov, sailing with daughter Sonja Duncan, sliced and rocked through the fleet on port tack and held that long port all the way to the layline. He was followed by Roy and Geoffrey Sherman who held second while the rest of the fleet drifted in a fairly compact mob toward and eventually over the finish line. Jennings remained in contention by taking 3rd ahead of Taylor while Ellis beat Bixby for 5th.

 

     The fleet waited for over an hour and some boats sailed in, but finally a 4th race was held. Bixby came back to win this race and Jennings took 2nd but needed to put a boat between himself and Anosov and could not do this when Anosov was 3rd ahead of Ellis, Sherman and Daniel Fontaine.

 

     Thus the final results found Anosov, Jennings, Bixby, Ellis and Ethington in the top five.

 

     No one spent the entire regatta at the back of the fleet as every single one of the 16 entrants placed 9th or better in at least one race! The class had a delightful time and looks forward to a bit more wind at the Midwinters in March.

 

 

 

SOUTHERNS   A   LIGHT   AIR   AFFAIR

Ethan and Trudy (5271) head off on port tack, followed by Lon and Meg  (3886).  Note the difficulty of starboard tack boats making the pin end of the starting line, a recurring situation on Sunday’s final race, including a general recall.  Photo by Marcey Sherman