Contenders return to their Spiritual Home

by Ian Grant on 2 Jan 2010 Brisbane sailor Bob Miller changed the excitement level of international dinghy sailing almost 45 years ago when he drew the crude lines of the Contender dinghy on a piece of plywood in a hot galvanised iron clad Brisbane riverfront boat shed.

The radical sailor who enjoyed disturbing local Bulimba residents as her drove his rowdy VW Beetle around the peaceful suburb had previously claimed respect as an innovative designer when he designed and skippered his plywood skiff Venom to win the 1961 World 18ft Skiff championship on the Brisbane River.

Apart from contesting the inaugural Australian Contender championship on Botany Bay in 1970 and representing Australia in the Soling at the 1972 Olympic regatta in Germany the ‘knockabout Aussie’ personally changed international sporting history in 1983 after changing his name to Ben Lexcen and designing the wing-keel Americas Cup champion Australia ll.

The International Contender class returns to their spiritual home to contest the 2010 World championship over the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron courses on Moreton Bay from January 8-12. Ahead of that the fleet will sail a Pre-Worlds event, the Australian Contender titles starting on Sunday 3rd January 2009.

A fleet of sixty skippers representing nine countries including seven times World champion Andrea Bonezzi of Italy will have both their tactical experience and physical endurance tested over the unforgiving waters which are exposed to strong flowing current and moderate to fresh sea breezes.

Defending World champion Andrea Bonezzi is nominated as the pre-championship favourite but he too will have to produce special helming and trapeze hiking skills to master the notoriously confused sea state know as the ‘Waterloo Slop’.

Failure to master this wave formation will ‘cut the cloth’ between the best and the rest with the reaching legs and the bottom mark rounding promising to be spiced with some spectacular ‘wipe out’ type capsizes.

Class racing has naturally stepped up another gear into the fast lane since Englishman David Pitman mastered the waters of Waterloo Bay in 1988 to claim the last World title decided in Brisbane.

Naturally with seven World titles to his credit over 19 years of racing in this physically demanding class suggests that Andrea Bonezzi should be the pace setter but his career record and experience will be put to the test when the modern fleet of thrill seeking trapeze hiking skippers duel for the honour of becoming the fortieth World champion in the final race on January 12.