Contender World Championship at Melbourne, Australia Overall

VICTORIA VICTORIOUS AS ARTHUR BRETT WINS WORLD TITLES IN CONTENDER CLASS AT SAIL MELBOURNE REGATTA

It was an emotional Arthur Brett (AUST) that crossed this finish line this afternoon to win his second World Title on the trot this afternoon at the Sail Melbourne Regatta.

Speaking from the finish line Brett said “this is even better than the first one,” before capsizing his single-handed Contender in his excitement at winning. On righting the boat it was an emotional Brett who spoke; he lost his father Ray a month or so ago, and said “this is for my Dad”, as the tears streamed down his face.

How did he felt going into today’s race, what tactics did he employ, knowing he was trailing former three-time world champion, Italy’s Andrea Bonezzi by three places after one discard? Brett said “I was really down in the dumps, didn’t think I could do it, so I spoke to Lex Bertrand (his coach, and brother to John Bertrand, who steered Australia to its only America’s Cup win) last night, and he told me I could do it. He told me just to sail clean, to keep Andrea covered, so that’s what I did.”

So it was that the 40 year old Brett won his second World Title. Last week the Victorian won the National Title in the same class, and is also the current Victorian champion. He credits his coach, Bertrand with all his wins.

However, it was not Bonezzi who finished 2nd at the end of the day, it was the United Kingdom’s Tim Holden, quietly doing his own thing, not concerned about the Brett versus Bonezzi syndrome. Holden had an excellent seven race-one drop series. He finished with a 3-3-2-2-8-3-2 score for total points of 15, after dropping his worst race - the one in which he broke his trapeze, but was quick to repair it to finish the race. Bonezzi finished 3rd overall, his worst race today with a 36th placing for total points of 15 to Brett’s 11 points.

Sixty-five international entrants contested the series, including entries from the U.K., Denmark, Italy and the USA Brett is Victoria’s first World Champion for 2002.

Overall Results: (7 races, 1 discard)