(FORTUNE Magazine) – --For Vanguard's $17 billion Windsor fund, it's been a humdinger of a run. Manager Charles Freeman--who took over the fund from the ballyhooed John Neff at year-end 1995--has engineered a head-spinning return of 27.1% for the 11 months through November 30. That compares with 22.5% for the average growth-and-income fund, according to Morningstar, and edges past the S&P 500, which returned 25.4%. Moreover, Windsor managed to best every one of the top 20 biggest equity funds. As Daniel Wiener, editor of the Independent Adviser for Vanguard Investors, puts it, "Over 11 months he's done everything a Windsor investor could hope for."

How? In part by sticking to the kind of value stocks Neff favored. But while Neff had 20% in cash at the end of 1995, Freeman cut that to about 10% and will work it down to 5%, at most, by early next year. He also moved into tech stocks during the January 1995 selloff and hiked Windsor's foreign stocks to almost 7%--whereas Neff had just 1% overseas at the end of 1995.

All this may sound academic: Windsor has been closed to new investors since 1989. Well, until the end of January, there's a nifty way to get in. Gemini II, a closed-end fund, is also run by Freeman. It sports two classes of stock: Capital shares entitle holders to proceeds from the fund's capital appreciation, and income shares entitle holders to the fund's dividends. Come the end of January, income shareholders will be able to convert their holdings into cash, money market shares, or--and here's the good part--shares in Windsor. Capital shareowners, who become the sole investors in Gemini II, are voting on whether to convert Windsor to an open-end fund. If they do, as seems certain, Vanguard will merge the open-end fund into Windsor, possibly by June. Which shares to buy? Since both trade at discounts to net asset value, take your pick. Then call your broker.

--Richard Teitelbaum