2010 Contender World Championships Day One

Contender Worlds Race One. Image copyright Suellen Hurling.

by Rob Kothe

Perfect weather for Day One of the 40th Contender World Championships, being sailed out Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron The standard Olympic Triangle course, was set on Waterloo Bay in an easterly direction heading out towards the gap between King and Pine Islands.

With the thunder of helicopters overhead, the beats went up amongst the 60 boat fleet as Race 1 began in bright sunny conditions with 13 knots of breeze.

The newly crowned Australian Champion Matt Mulder (AUS2408) was over the start line early, along with two other boats but he alone went back.

At the top mark for the first time, reigning World Champion Andrea Bonezzi (ITA11) approached the mark from starboard lay line and rounded six boat lengths ahead of British sailor Simon Mussell (GBR2420). Brisbane local Geoff Fisher (AUS2468) was third. At the wing mark Mussell was flying and had closed up to within a boat length of Bonezzi.

At the bottom mark Mussell rounded ahead on Bonezzi, with Jono Neate (AUS2323) up into third. Just five boats lengths separated the top four boats. Unfortunately for Neate shortly afterwards his trapeze line broke and he fell back through the fleet.

At the top mark for the second time, Mussell was first to the layline. Bonezzi tacked inside of Mussell but was short of the line. While the two boats were sailing side by side, Bonezzi had to pinch and he fell in behind Mussell as they rounded. Fisher was third.

Mussell and Bonezzi came in from the left on the beat up to the finish line. Mussell tacked a fraction early and under laid the finishing pin, but it mattered little as Bonezzi had better speed and with slightly cracked sheets was faster to the finish.

Waiting for the next race Bonezzi was succint. 'I got a good start and I had good speed. Simon gave me a good fight. It's a beautiful day.'

Matt Mulder grimaced. 'I was over at the start and went back, but clawed my way back into the fleet.'

Chris Sutherland (AUS 2443) and Brett Holly (AUS 2375) were OCS. Stephen Toms (AUS) 2169 retired with broken gear.

Provisional Results for Race 1 - Top Five:

1. Andrea Bonezzi (ITA 11)
2. Simon Mussell (GBR2420)
3. Geoff Fisher (AUS 2468)
4. Steven Grimes (AUS2179)
5. Christoph Homeier (GER551)

For the start of Race 2 the fleet again had sunshine, with 10-11 knots of breeze. As they approached the top mark the wind lifted to 14 knots.

Bonezzi (ITA11) was a narrow leader around the mark, ahead of Christoph Homeier (GER551) with Brett Holly (AUS2375) third.

It was a tight duel at the wingmark between the first two, Homeier with better downwind speed just ahead of Bonezzi as they approached the bottom mark.

Bonezzi was leading at the top mark for the second time, with Homeier and Mulder each two boat lengths apart.
Bonezzi chose the middle of course, Homeier the right and Mulder the left.

As the tide was beginning to run out of Lota Creek, the boats were staying to the left as the breeze dropped down to 8-10 knots.

Downwind Homeier just squeaked in ahead of Bonezzi, with Mulder just a few boat lengths back.

Homeier appears to have the advantage downwind and Bonezzi the advantage upwind. It's was an intriguing battle with Bonezzi clearly out to claim his eighth World title.

Homeier let out a giant yahoo as he crossed the finish line one boat length ahead of Bonezzi. He had pinned Bonezzi to leeward past the layline but the game had to stop as Mulder came in fast from the left to finish a close third.

An elated Homeier said 'Going down the last run we were going wave for wave. I just got one wave better. Then coming up the final beat to the finish I managed to hold Andrea out.'

Provisional Results Race 2 - Top Five:

1. Christoph Homeier (GER551)
2. Andrea Bonezzi (ITA11)
3. Matt Mulder (AUS2408)
4. Jono Neate (AUS2323)
5. Geoff Fisher (AUS2468)

Dockside the defending champion Andrea Bonezzi was smiling, which is not hard when you are leading after the first day.

'The competition was tough out there today. I started reasonably conservatively in both races, no risks. I was just happy to be first to the top mark in both races and I'm happy to leading the regatta after the first day.'

'Christoph is very fast down wind in medium and light conditions as he proved today. He was the same in the last French Championships. Simon (Mussell) was faster than me on the reaches and so I have some work to do there.

'All in all a nice day on the water and tomorrow I will be faster. I am sure Matt (Mulder) and Jono (Neate) will be attacking tomorrow.'

Series Results [Open] up to Race 2
(Drops = 0) Place Ties From Sail No Boat Name Skipper Sers Score Race 2 Race 1

1 ITA ITA11 Ronstan Andrea Bonezzi 3.00 2.00 1.00
2 GER GER551 Schroeder Christoph Homeier 6.00 1.00 5.00
3 QAUS AUS2468 Bella Anna Geoff Fisher 8.00 5.00 3.00
4 VAUS AUS2323 AUS2323 Jono Neate 12.00 4.00 8.00
5 2.0S UK GBR2420 Carrie2 Simon Mussell 14.00 12.00 2.00
6 QAUS AUS2408 Chewbacca Matt Mulder 14.00 3.00 11.00
7 QAUS AUS1753 Stacey Phillip Evans 15.00 6.00 9.00
8 VAUS AUS2204 Erica's Diamond Chris Peile 17.00 10.00 7.00
9 UK GBR2421 (V)No Name Gary Langdon 19.00 13.00 6.00
10 VAUS AUS2136 Ro Shambo Grant Robinson 28.00 14.00 14.00
11 UK GBR2406 Mako Ed Presley 29.00 17.00 12.00
12 ITA ITA315 Gnuzzender Antonio Lambertini 31.00 21.00 10.00
13 GER GER531 Fajrant Joachim Harpprecht 35.00 20.00 15.00
14 WAUS AUS2105 (V)Mojo Greg Barrington 37.00 24.00 13.00
15 WAUS AUS2411 (V)Cruising Ross Brennan 38.00 15.00 23.00
16 UK GBR694 Rock n Rolla Chris Boshier 40.00 11.00 29.00
17 GER GER1421 Kabbelwasser Dirk Mueller 41.00 19.00 22.00
18 UK GBR2383 Bit of Wet David Davies 42.00 9.00 33.00
19 16.0S QAUS AUS1306 Got Wood Chris Somers 43.00 27.00 16.00
20 17.0S ITA ITA40 Stealth Luca Bonezzi 43.00 26.00 17.00
21 CAN CAN2398 HoneyBun Neil Smith 43.00 23.00 20.00
22 QAUS AUS2281 Don t Know Scott McInerney 47.00 22.00 25.00
23 NED NED232 (V)Ristretto Mark Thorborg 48.00 16.00 32.00
24 18.0S UK GBR2152 (V)One Jump Ahead Mike Denham 50.00 32.00 18.00
25 GER GER1789 (J)Flyer Alexander Groehlich 50.00 29.00 21.00
26 QAUS AUS1364 Blubber Boy Trevor Monaghan 56.00 30.00 26.00
27 ITA ITA111 (V)Valiant Emilio Betta 59.00 28.00 31.00
28 DEN DEN2425 (V)Jolly Jumper Henning Wermuth 60.00 25.00 35.00
29 GER GER2235 (V)Sailoraptor Michael Koch 63.00 36.00 27.00
30 WAUS AUS2164 Juche' Richard Shallcross 64.00 34.00 30.00
31 4.0S QAUS AUS2179 AUS2179 Steven Grimes 65.00 61.00O 4.00
32 18.0S VAUS AUS2296 Maho Matthew Kee 65.00 18.00 47.00
33 UK GBR2314 (V)Foxy Lady Rodger White 65.00 31.00 34.00
34 ITA ITA15 Calaf II Luca Gusmeroli 66.00 38.00 28.00
35 NAUS AUS2375 Butterfly Sandwich Brett Holly 68.00 7.00 61.00O
36 WAUS AUS2443 (V)AUS2443 Chris Sutherland 69.00 8.00 61.00O
37 24.0S UK GBR2432 (V)Syringa Jerry Hone 71.00 47.00 24.00
38 UK GBR2407 (V)RB Sport&Travel Richard Buttner 71.00 35.00 36.00
39 ITA ITA20 c'e le secche Antonio Martini 73.00 33.00 40.00
40 QAUS AUS1540 AUS1540 Roger Grimes 74.00 37.00 37.00
41 NAUS AUS2174 The Big Kahuna David Leask 79.00 40.00 39.00
42 19.0S NAUS AUS2238 (V)Neopnee Alan Griffith 80.00 61.00O 19.00
43 UK GBR2318 (V)U-Beaut Alan Mollatt 80.00 42.00 38.00
44 QAUS AUS1327 (V)BabyBoomerOnBoard Jan Mulder 84.00 41.00 43.00
45 QAUS AUS225 (J)Sticky Side Up James Dahl 86.00 45.00 41.00
46 DEN DEN1628 DEN1628 Lars Bo Rasmussen 87.00 39.00 48.00
47 QAUS AUS1244 Random Scott Bowman 88.00 44.00 44.00
48 UK GBR2310 (V)Mzungu Tony White 91.00 46.00 45.00
49 43.0S QAUS AUS226 Gopher Shuffle Ian Bowman 95.00 43.00 52.00
50 GER GER2400 (W)Herz aus Gold Ann Seidel 95.00 49.00 46.00
51 NAUS AUS2338 (V)Spider Pig Peter Murphy 97.00 48.00 49.00
52 QAUS AUS166 Gavin Dan Haydon 100.00 50.00 50.00
53 ITA ITA316 MagicBoxSailingTeam Matteo Brescia 103.00 61.00F 42.00
54 51.0S UK GBR505 Sherbet David Henshall 105.00 51.00 54.00
55 QAUS AUS1329 (V)Frantic@SupaIGA John McLean 105.00 52.00 53.00
56 QAUS AUS21 Colly Wobble Tony Debney 110.00 53.00 57.00
57 QAUS AUS830 Get Me A Bucket Rod Hieatt 112.00 61.00S 51.00
58 CAN CAN80 (W)Sweet Pea Stephanie Mah 116.00 61.00F 55.00
59 VAUS AUS232 Gogolomobile Sean Managh 117.00 61.00S 56.00
60 QAUS AUS2169 (V)Carbon Credit Stephen Toms 122.00 61.00S 61.00F

Contender Worlds 2010