History
Windsbraut was built in 1939 by Abeking & Rasmussen in Lemwerder near Bremen. A&R had previously 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 biggest Olympic class yacht from 1908 till 1936 and the Germania III won the bronze medal at the 1936 Olympic Games in Kiel. She still sails under the same name and in first-class condition on the Kiel Fjord.For the 1940 Olympic Games in Helsinki, Abeking & Rasmussen built the Germania IV in 1939 for Krupp under hull number 3340 and sail number 8G12 and the Windsbraut III with hull number 3338 and sail number 8G11. The client was the private banker Fritz Sponholz from Berlin Charlottenburg, who had previously successfully sailed the 75sqm national cruisers Windsbraut I and II, both also from A&R. Sponholz won a few regattas in the 1939 season with the Windsbraut III, including Finland Week on the Olympic courses in Helsinki, as can be read in reports in Yacht magazine.Unfortunately, World War II destroyed all plans for the Olympics and the Helsinki Games did not take place until 1952, although without the participation of the 8mR yachts. It is not known whether Fritz Sponholz survived the war just as unscathed as Die Windsbraute. However, it appears again in the A&R construction number book in 1945 with the order for an Olympic dinghy. Otherwise little is known about him. Only documented is his journey in 1908 at the age of 25 on the Cunard Line's luxury liner Mauretania from Liverpool to New York. After the war, the Windsbraut sailed on the Wannsee for many years and was always one of the fastest yachts. In the early ninties she sailed on the Dutch lakes under the name Vrace under ownership of Theo Danel Sr. In 1989 she found a new owner on the Baltic Sea, where she has since taken part in many classic regattas and is again sailing against her old rivals Germania III and Germania IV.
