8mR Yacht Windsbraut

History

The Windsbraut is a classic racing yacht in the 8mR class. Yachts in this class are also known as "eights". The 8mR class was created in 1906 as an internationally recognised measurement formula. In fact, the yachts are not 8 metres long, but usually between 14 and 15 metres. 8 is the result of a formula that limits the essential factors of a racing yacht: The length in the waterline, the difference between the hull dimension and the girth dimension, the freeboard and the sail area:

(L+2d-F+√S)/2.37 = 8

The Windsbraut was built in 1939 by Abeking & Rasmussen in Lemwerder near Bremen. Prior to this, A&R had already built several successful 8mR yachts, namely the Germania II (1934) and the Germania III (1936) for Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach. The 8mR class was the largest Olympic class at the time and the Germania III won the bronze medal at the 1936 Olympic Games in Kiel. She still sails today under the same name and in first-class condition on the Kiel Fjord.

For the 1940 Olympic Games in Helsinki, A&R built the Germania IV for Krupp in 1939 under construction number 3340 and sail number 8G12 and the Windsbraut III with construction number 3338 and sail number 8G11. The client was the private banker Fritz Sponholz from Berlin Charlottenburg, who had already successfully sailed the 75 square metre national cruisers Windsbraut I and II, both also built by A&R. Sponholz won several regattas with the Windsbraut III in the 1939 season, including the Finland Week on the Olympic courses in Helsinki, as can be read in reports in Yacht magazine.

Unfortunately, the Second World War cancelled all Olympic plans and the Games in Helsinki did not take place until 1952, albeit without the participation of the 8mR yachts. It is not known whether Fritz Sponholz survived the war as unscathed as the Windsbraut. However, he appears once again in the A&R construction number book in 1945 with an order for an Olympic dinghy. Otherwise, little is known about him. The only documented record is his voyage from Liverpool to New York in 1908 at the age of 25 on the luxury steamer Mauretania of the Cunard Line.

After the war, the Windsbraut sailed on the Wannsee for many years and was always one of the fastest yachts. in 1989, she found a new owner on the Baltic Sea, where she has since taken part in many classic regattas and is once again sailing against her old rivals Germania III and Germania IV.