Contender World Championships day four - Down to the wire

by Rob Kothe & Al Constable on 11 Jan 2010 Current Contender World Champion Italy’s Andrea Bonezzi (ITA11) hopes of winning his eighth world title yesterday came under siege from Australia’s Jono Neate (AUS 2323) and the question on everyone’s lips today was ‘can Neate do it again?’

Competitors left the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron this afternoon on a day straight out of the Contender brochure – 10 to 15 knots of breeze under brilliant blue skies. The fleet headed for the Northern Course, located towards the tip of Green Island.

Race 7 was a clear start. Defending Champion Andrea Bonezzi (ITA11) was third from the pin, slightly back from a cloud of Contenders.

When the fleet eventually tacked, Bonezzi seemed to be controlling Jono Neate (AUS232) but at the top mark Neate rounded first as he had done in the two races yesterday. Behind Neate came Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron local Phillip Evans (AUS1753) with fellow RQ sailor Geoff Fisher (AUS2468) third.

At the wing mark Christoph Homeier had come into the picture while Bonezzi was buried back in eighth.

With the series leader Neate clear ahead at the end of the second reach, the group behind him went the other way. They were never going to catch Neate by following him up the centre of the course. Instead they went hard left.

By the top mark Simon Mussell (GBR2420) had sailed into second place ahead of Evans. Bonezzi had clawed his way back to fourth place with Fisher about to be overtaken by Homeier.

At the bottom mark for the last time it was Neate - then day light, then Mussell and Homeier, who had a good run, then Bonezzi and Gary Langdon (GBR2421).

Neate crossed the finish line first and said ‘I started at the pin again. I crossed the fleet. It worked yesterday, so I thought I’d do it again.'

British sailor Simon Mussell was pleased with his second place. He started just above Neate as did Christoph Homeier who looked like he just pipped Bonezzi at the finish.

Race 7 Provisional Results Top Five :

1. Jono Neate (AUS2323)
2. Simon Mussell (GBR2420)
3. Christop Homeier (GER551)
4. Andrea Bonezzi (ITA11)
5. Phillip Evans (AUS1753)

Race 8

The wind was at 105 and the course more east at the start of Race 8.

Jono Neate chose the pin end again and came in from course side at the last minute. Three up from Neate was Simon Mussell, another three up to Christoph Homeier with Andrea Bonezzi about 15 up the line.

Again Neate crossed the first half of the fleet and for a few minutes it seemed that Neate could win again and that would have been the Championship decider.

But he fell down in the pack trying to cover Bonezzi and Mussell who was close by and worked the shifts better to round the mark first with Chris Peile (AUS2204) showing up at the party for the first time in this regatta to be second round. Homier was third, but surprisingly Neate was back in the pack.

At the top mark with one lap to go, the course was changed to 090 and in what may have been a world championship piece of action, Bonezzi came hurtling in on port tack and just managed to get powered up again to hold out Mussell and a group that included Homeier.

Determination was etched on the seven times World Champion's face. Bonezzi vowed he would be more aggressive today and he certainly was. Jono Neate was back in sixth.

At the bottom mark for the last time as they worked the beat, Homeier had overtaken Bonezzi with Steven Grimes (AUS2179) just ahead of Simon Mussell and Chris Peile.

The little trapeze dinghies scattered, right across the course. There were some big gambles on the final beat but in the end the winners came in from the right.

It was Steven Grimes by half a boat length from Christoph Homeier and Andrea Bonezzi. Jono Neate was seventh.

Race 8 Provisional Results Top Five:

1. Steven Grimes (AUS2179)
2. Christoph Homeier (GER551)
3. Andrea Bonezzi (ITA11)
4. Gary Langdon (GBR2421)
5. Chris Peile (AUS2204)

Overall

The World Championship is now at a very interesting stage.

1. Christoph Homeier - 18 points
2. Andrea Bonezzi - 19 points
3. Jono Neate - 21 points

There was agreement from the three leaders as they shook hands in the boat park in the late afternoon light.
Yes it is tight at the top and yes tomorrow will be a very big day.

Andrea Bonezzi was first to throw down the challenge. ‘I am sick of just being consistent. My worst race of the eight so far is a fifth. Now I am keen to win again.

‘It is very interesting, that is for sure. If there is more breeze, I think I have the edge over Christoph (Homeier) and Jonno (Neate) but if it stays light, it could be anyone’s World Championship.’

Neate had a sense of what might have been. 'The first race was excellent but I was probably too greedy in the last. I started in the same place, I wanted to cover Andrea and I footed down, when I probably should have stayed high. Then on the last work, I went the wrong way.’

Just leading by a point Christop Homeier was smiling. ‘If there was no wind tomorrow at all, I would not mind. Are there any more cyclones around? '

Series Results [Open] up to Race 8 (Drops = 1)
Ties From Sail No Boat Name Skipper Series R8 R7 R6 R5 R4 R3 R2 R1
1 GER GER551 Schroeder Christoph Homeier 18 2 3 2 3 [12.00] 2 1 5
2 ITA ITA11 Ronstan Andrea Bonezzi 19 3 4 4 4 1 [5.00] 2 1
3 VAUS AUS2323 AUS2323 Jono Neate 20 7 1 1 1 2 4 4 [8.00]
4 QAUS AUS2179 AUS2179 Steven Grimes 28 1 8 5 5 4 1 [61.00O] 4
5 UK GBR2420 Carrie2 Simon Mussell 33 6 2 7 6 7 3 [12.00] 2
6 QAUS AUS2468 Bella Anna Geoff Fisher 36 9 6 3 [17.00] 3 7 5 3
7 QAUS AUS2408 Chewbacca Matt Mulder 45 [15.00] 9 8 2 6 6 3 11
8 UK GBR2421 No Name Gary Langdon 54 4 7 10 13 5 9 [13.00] 6
9 VAUS AUS2204 Erica's Diamond Chris Peile 64 5 [17.00] 15 9 10 8 10 7
10 QAUS AUS1753 Stacey Phillip Evans 67 8 5 [20.00] 19 8 12 6 9
11 UK GBR2406 Mako Ed Presley 94 10 10 11 14 20 [23.00] 17 12
12 WAUS AUS2443 (V)AUS2443 Chris Sutherland 95 14 27 6 12 14 14 8 [61.00O]
13 9.0S ITA ITA40 Stealth Luca Bonezzi 104 11 11 [36.00] 11 9 19 26 17
14 ITA ITA315 Gnuzzender Antonio Lambertini 104 12 20 12 16 17 17 [21.00] 10
15 UK GBR2383 Bit of Wet David Davies 107 19 13 16 24 11 15 9 [33.00]
16 GER GER531 Fajrant Joachim Harpprecht 108 17 14 17 15 [27.00] 10 20 15
17 VAUS AUS2136 Ro Shambo Grant Robinson 109 13 15 18 7 28 [32.00] 14 14
18 GER GER1421 Kabbelwasser Dirk Mueller 110 16 23 9 10 [35.50] 11 19 22
19 NED NED232 (V)Ristretto Mark Thorborg 120 21 21 13 18 15 16 16 [32.00]
20 UK GBR694 Rock n Rolla Chris Boshier 122 18 24 14 8 18 [35.00] 11 29
21 NAUS AUS2238 (V)Neopnee Alan Griffith 140 20 22 22 28 16 13 [61.00O] 19
22 QAUS AUS1306 Got Wood Chris Somers 141 22 [32.00] 21 21 13 21 27 16
23 GER GER1789 (J)Flyer Alexander Groehlich 158 26 12 [31.00] 23 21 26 29 21
24 CAN CAN2398 HoneyBun Neil Smith 170 30 [34.00] 29 27 23 18 23 20
25 15.0S WAUS AUS2411 (V)Cruising Ross Brennan 177 33 33 [33.00] 25 19 29 15 23
26 UK GBR2152 (V)One Jump Ahead Mike Denham 177 23 28 19 32 29 28 [32.00] 18
27 WAUS AUS2105 (V)Mojo Greg Barrington 187 25 36 32 31 26 [61.00O] 24 13
28 ITA ITA111 (V)Valiant Emilio Betta 190 32 19 34 22 [43.00] 24 28 31
29 NAUS AUS2375 Butterfly Sandwich Brett Holly 191 61.00F 25 23 26 22 27 7 [61.00O]
30 DEN DEN2425 (V)Jolly Jumper Henning Wermuth 195 28 [37.00] 28 33 24 22 25 35
31 UK GBR2407 (V)RB Sport&Travel Richard Buttner 198 34 16 24 20 33 [38.00] 35 36
32 QAUS AUS1364 Blubber Boy Trevor Monaghan 204 35 18 25 36 [44.00] 34 30 26
33 UK GBR2314 (V)Foxy Lady Rodger White 214 27 26 30 29 37 [61.00O] 31 34
34 GER GER2235 (V)Sailoraptor Michael Koch 216 29 35 26 30 [48.00] 33 36 27
35 UK GBR2432 (V)Syringa Jerry Hone 231 41 39 42 35 25 25 [47.00] 24
36 QAUS AUS2281 Don t Know Scott McInerney 232 [46.00] 29 38 41 41 36 22 25
37 20.0S ITA ITA15 Calaf II Luca Gusmeroli 251 44 41 50 [61.00R] 30 20 38 28
38 DEN DEN1628 DEN1628 Lars Bo Rasmussen 251 24 30 40 [61.00R] 39 31 39 48
39 NAUS AUS2174 The Big Kahuna David Leask 260 36 38 27 34 46 [61.00O] 40 39
40 ITA ITA20 c'e le secche Antonio Martini 265 [48.00] 47 37 37 34 37 33 40
41 30.0S QAUS AUS225 (J)Sticky Side Up James Dahl 279 37 45 44 42 40 30 [45.00] 41
42 35.0S QAUS AUS226 Gopher Shuffle Ian Bowman 279 43 42 35 46 31 39 43 [52.00]
43 QAUS AUS1244 Random Scott Bowman 279 31 [48.00] 43 39 38 40 44 44
44 QAUS AUS1540 AUS1540 Roger Grimes 280 40 40 [49.00] 40 42 44 37 37
45 UK GBR2318 (V)U-Beaut Alan Mollatt 285 47 31 39 [47.00] 45 43 42 38
46 WAUS AUS2164 Juche' Richard Shallcross 295 45 46 41 38 61.00F [61.00F] 34 30
47 UK GBR2310 (V)Mzungu Tony White 299.5 38 44 46 [48.00] 35.5 45 46 45
48 VAUS AUS2296 Maho Matthew Kee 300 [61.00F] 43 53 44 49 46 18 47
49 QAUS AUS1327 (V)BabyBoomerOnBoard Jan Mulder 304 [52.00] 49 48 49 32 42 41 43
50 GER GER2400 (W)Herz aus Gold Ann Seidel 320 39 [50.00] 47 45 47 47 49 46
51 ITA ITA316 MagicBoxSailingTeam Matteo Brescia 324 42 61.00F 45 43 50 41 [61.00F] 42
52 NAUS AUS2338 (V)Spider Pig Peter Murphy 353 [61.00F] 52 52 52 51 49 48 49
53 QAUS AUS1329 (V)Frantic@SupaIGA John McLean 358 49 54 [56.00] 50 52 48 52 53
54 QAUS AUS166 Gavin Dan Haydon 363 51 [57.00] 51 54 56 51 50 50
55 UK GBR589 Sherbet David Henshall 374 54 55 54 51 [57.00] 55 51 54
56 VAUS AUS232 Gogolomobile Sean Managh 378 53 51 57 55 54 52 [61.00S] 56
57 CAN CAN80 (W)Sweet Pea Stephanie Mah 385 50 58 55 56 58 53 [61.00F] 55
58 QAUS AUS830 Get Me A Bucket Rod Hieatt 390 61.00F 53 61.00S 61.00S 53 50 [61.00S] 51
59 QAUS AUS2169 (V)Carbon Credit Stephen Toms 392 55 56 58 53 55 54 61.00S [61.00F]
60 QAUS AUS21 Colly Wobble Tony Debney 400 [61.00F] 59 59 57 59 56 53 57