Contender World Championships, Lake Garda

146 boats arrived at the Italian resort of Riva on Lake Garda for the 2004 Contender World championships.

Competitors from 8 nations, as far a field as Australia and USA made up the field, which also included a large turnout of British and Italians.

Current World champion and four times winner Andrea Bonnezzi was hot favourite along with previous holder and current National champion Stuart Jones from Great Britain. Australians Marcus Hamilton and Tim Hill and Brit Tim Holden were also tipped as possible winners.

As is the norm at major International Contender regattas, all boats are subjected to measurement. This involves weighing the hull checking the mast weight and black bands and checking sails for earlier measurement stamps. With the number of boats involved, this was scheduled to be carried out over Saturday and Sunday and then be followed by a practice race. With all measurement completed by Sunday lunchtime, it was time for everyone to see wheat Lake Garda had to offer.

The plan was to split the fleet in half, with the first four races being a qualifying series, and for the next six the fleet would form gold and silver fleets with only the gold fleet able to compete for the world championship trophy.

Day 1:
Races 1&2

Racing in the red fleet was dominated by Tim Holden (GBR) who won both races with relative ease. 2nd in race one was John Browett 3rd was Danish sailor Soren Andreasen, 2nd in race two was Andreasen followed by British sailor Neil Wilson in 3rd.

The yellow fleet was a double act by the Italians, with Virgilio Frau taking the gun in the first race followed by Andrea Bonnezzi. 3rd was Australian Marcus Hamilton. In the second race, the front two places were reversed with third place being taken by yet another Italian, Giovanni Bonzio.

Disaster fell for pre event favourite Tim Hill who suffered a broken halyard in the first race only to tie his sail up and have the mast head fitting fail in the second, leaving him with a mountain to climb to even make the gold fleet let alone stand a chance of winning the event.

Day 2:
Race 3

The Contender fleet was met with a slight increase in the wind strength for the first fleet starts on day two of the championships. Today saw the two qualification fleets seeded from yesterdays results with the gold and silver fleets being decided after racing today.

Both red and yellow fleets got away to clean starts with some starting from the favoured pin end and the rest deciding to head for the cliffs on the right hand side of the course, straight from the committee boat end.

The yellow fleet was led round the first mark by Italian Andrea Bonnezzi and was never challenged, finishing with a 300 yard lead at the finish. After much place changing behind him the results were 1st Andrea Bonnezzi 2nd Virgilio Frau (Italy) 3rd Tim Hill (Australia) British places were, Stuart Jones 4th John Browett 8th Neil Wilson 12th and Neil Ferguson 16th

The red fleet led by German Sebastian Munck after a capsize under the cliffs by regatta leader Tim Holden let him through. The chasing pack included Brits Matt Aston Simon Mussell, Gary Langdown, Paul Ross and the slightly damp Holden. Munck held on to his lead until the second triangle when he was overtaken by Australian Marcus Hamilton who seemed to have found another gear.

The finishing order was 1st Marcus Hamilton (Australia) 2nd Sebastian Munck (Germany) 3rd Matt Hosie (Australia) British places were Matt Aston 7th Tim Holden 8th Gary Langdown 10th Paul Ross 12th Simon Mussell 13

Race 4

With the wind ominously decreasing the yellow fleet started with Italian Bonnezzi once again demonstrating his superior boat speed, he was closely followed by fellow Italian Giovanni Bonzio and Brit Stuart Jones. These places remained unchanged until the run when, with the wind now dying the race committee decided to abandon racing.

This decision was met with relief by the beleaguered red fleet who had only managed to reach the leeward mark and had no prospect of going any further.

So with the qualification series only having three results, it was decided to continue it into the following day before splitting the fleet in to Gold and Silver.

Day 3
Race 4 (rerun)

A particular sadistic race officer decided that he needed to catch up with the race lost yesterday and his solution for this was to order an 8am start. So with the fleet assembled bleary eyed in the dinghy park at 6.30 am and with no wind in prospect the postponement flag went up. However at 11 the wind began to show. The fleet launched into a rapidly strengthening breeze that by the end of the first race had built to 30 knots.

As ever, the majority of the red fleet started cleanly on the starboard tack with most of the front runners choosing to tack early on to port and head for the cliffs. At the windward mark, Tim Holden (GBR) had a small lead over Marcus Hamilton (AUS) with Soren Andreasen (DEN) in third. Hamiltons superior downwind ability allowed him to rapidly gain the lead which he held on to until the finish. The finishing order was 1st Hamilton (AUS) 2nd Tim Holden (GBR) 3rd Roberto Lorenzi (ITA) 4th Matt Hosie (AUS) 5th Simon Mussell (GBR). Other British placings. Keith Paul 8th Matt Aston 11th David Davies 12th Gary Langdown 15th Paul Ross 16th.

The yellow fleet was led once again from start to finish by Andrea Bonnezzi to win his third race of the series. Second place was again taken by fellow Italian Virgilio Frau who seems to have entered into a double act with Bonnezzi mopping up the first two places between them. The battle for third place was more intense with Italian Giovanni Bonzio, Stuart Jones (GBR) Neil Wilson (GBR) and Stephen Fries (AUS) with Bonzio eventually taking 3rd. Other British placings were 4th Stuart Jones 10th John Browett 11th Neil Wilson

With this race being the last of the qualification series, the fleet was sent in while the results were calculated to decide which boats formed the gold and silver fleets. Unfortunately while this was being done the wind dropped and despite being sent out, all further racing was cancelled for the day.

Day 4

With races still to catch up the race officer elected to go for a more reasonable 11am start. So with a gently building southerly, the fleet headed towards the start area.

The wind remained relatively light for the duration of the race which was won in the gold fleet by Australian Stephen Grimes and in the silver fleet by Brit Chris Mitchell.

Race 6

The wind had increased for race 6 this allowed Aussie Marcus Hamilton to once again demonstrate his amazing downwind boatspeed and dominate the race and win his third race of the series.

The silver fleet was once again dominated by Chris Mitchell indicating that if he had been able to sail the entire qualification series he could have ended up in the gold fleet.

Race 7

Unfortunately, the wind started to ease for the start of race 7 and as everyone knows when the wind drops in the afternoon on Garda it does not come back!

The wind became quite shifty with usually favoured right hand side generally not paying as Stuart Jones found to his cost. The Gold fleet was won by Dutch sailor Rene Heynen after race leader Jones failed to spot his error until too late. The silver fleet was won by Silver fleet leader Stefano Lagi (ITA) with the emerging Chris Mitchell putting in an uncharacteristic 42nd

Day 5:

With potentially 3 races still to be run, it was yet another 11 oclock start, with the fleet heading out into a light but (hopefully) building breeze.

The fleets started in a lightish 10 knot breeze. This was clearly not to the liking of the usual suspects of in the gold fleet with Bonnezzi and Hamilton, currently 1st and 2nd overall only managing a 5th and 4th respectively, allowing 1st place to go to Tim ‘on a mission’ Hill 2nd place went to fellow Australian Steven Grimes and 3rd to Dane Soren Andreasen. Best placed Brits were Nick Grace in 6th and Stuart Jones 7th.

The silver fleet was slightly more predictable, with Italian Stefano Lagi scoring a first and Brit Rodger White 2nd. 3rd place went to Italian Tomaso Macchi.

By the start of race 9, the wind had built to a steady 25-30 knots. The series could still be won by Bonnezzi or Hamilton, however it seemed Hamilton was going to wait for the next race to do a job on Bonnezzi, which as it transpired could have cost him the title as Bonnezzi’s 2nd and Hamilton’s 4th was enough to give Bonnezzi the title for the fifth time. Virgilio Frau ended the series as he started with a well deserved first place. Third place went to Italian Roberto Lorenzi. Best placed Brit was John Browett in 9th.

The Silver fleet was\ won by Australian Alan Griffith thus elevating him to silver fleet leader.2nd was Chris Mitchell and 3rd went to Italian Alessandro Macchelli.

The race officer decided that time was getting on so he decided not to run the last race (much to the disgust of many as the wind was now a steady 30 knots) and sent the fleets in to pack up their boats and prepare for the prize giving ceremony. With 146 boats competing, this was the largest Contender event ever. It was a superbly run event both on and off the water in a beautiful venue and is a true indication of the strength of a class that has continued to thrive despite (or maybe because of) the competition from the latest manufacturers one design classes.

To view the many photo’s of this event or maybe get more information on this superb class and how to get in on the act, visit the UK class web site www.sailingsource.com/contender/gbr". Next year its Travemunde in Germany and 2006 its Freemantle in Australia.

ResultsFinal overall positions where as follows:

Gold fleet:
1st Andrea Bonnezzi ITA
2nd Marcus Hamilton AUS
3rd Gionanni Bonzio ITA
4th Steven Grimes AUS
5th Tim Holden GBR
6th Neil Wilson GBR

Silver Fleet

1st Alan Griffith AUS
2nd Stefano Lagi ITA
3rd Chris Mitchell GBR
4th Tom Seppings GBR
5th Alessandro Macchelli ITA
6th Francesco Lombardi ITA