Contender World Championships at Centro Vela Alto Lario - Overall
by Roberto Mazzali 21 Jul 2013 16:02 BST
14-20 July 2013
Final thrilling day in Gravedona for the Contender Worlds: the top five
Contender sailors are tied on points and the scheduled last two races
introduce a discard in the final flights. The dane Søren Dulong Andreasen
leads by 2 points the brit Simon Mussel: in the qualification series his
worse result was a second(!) but in the finals Simon scored a 10th and
now he needs a discard to kick out his bad result in the last race of day
4. Soren was really consistent and never scored worse than a 6th.
In third place the australian Mark Bulka leads the german Christoph
Homeier: they have the same points but Mark scored a 1 in the first final
race; italian Andrea Bonezzi follows by 1 point only and the podium is
open to all.
The morning start with sun and the typical Como lake conditions, so the
'Breva' south wind starts blowing at 12 am. The fleet is arriving on the
race course when stormy clouds cover the surrounding mountains and stop
the wind. The race committee hoists the AP flag, waiting for something to
change.
With half and hour to time limit, some wind arrives and the gold
fleet had its start: unfortunately the wind shifted by 30 degrees exactly
at the starting gun and a general recall was unavoidable. The wind is now
too shifty due to the stromy clouds and the race committee was forced to
abandon racing having reached the time limit as well.
Søren Dulong Andreasen wins his first title with a disappointed Simon
Mussel in second and Mark Bulka in third.
The prize giving ceremony is hosted in front of the lake with Antonio
Rossi, the kayak olympic champion who was born on Como lake, awarding the
competitors.
The Contender International Class wants to thank the hosting club, AVAL
CDV, all the people who contributed in these days to the perfect outcoming
of the largest Contender event ever held in the class history, the Italian
Contender Association, and the sponsors Regione Lombardia, Doka, Missultin
Zone, M26 Sportech, Navionics, Il Prodiere, Viadana.
www.contenderworlds2013.info