Contender Worlds - Waterloo Bay, the Washing Machine

by Rob Kothe on 4 Jan 2010 Today was the first day of the 2010 Contender Pre-worlds, the 2010 Contender Australian Championship, and the event organiser Matt Mulder who is a former Australian and current Queensland Contender champion, was in his element.

Pre-event it had been calculated that 70% of the time there are north easterly sea breezes on the Contender race course in January.

But today was straight out of the fine print; heavy overcast, humid, a southerly averaging 18 knots, topping out at 26 knots.

There have been big tides all week. The tide runs out to the south east of the Waterloo Bay course, between King and Green Islands with a south easterly breeze of 17-26 knots - classic wind against tide conditions. With sharp little seas of 1-1.5 metres there was some ‘washing machine’ about it - the locals call it ‘Waterloo slop’.

In the race one of the Pre-Worlds first across the line was Matt Mulder, just five boat lengths ahead of the Italian master and seven times world champion Andrea Bonezzi. Third was the Australia pre-event favourite Jono Neate, a surprising two minutes back. Then there was another long gap to the Brit most likely to succeed, Simon Mussel. The German top gun Christop Homeier was next, with Australian Class president Chris Sutherland following.

Behind them straggled the fleet, in various stages of disrepair. Race officials decided 'enough was enough' and canned the second race. The rescue boats towed in three boats with damaged rudders and masts; there were in fact 17 boats that failed to finish the course, 12 of them capsizing and were unable to right their boats without assistance.

There was a number of 'chock tops'. The water depth across much of the dinghy course is not much over two metres and the Morton Bay mud is dark brown, if you add 1-1.5 metres of sharp little seas and a capsize ... behold a 'choc-top' as the boats are righted, that is Morton Bay mud on the mast tip.

For many sailors, the best bit of the day was the reach home.

Standing in the sunshine enjoying a free beer, Andrea Bonezzi said simply ‘it was tough out there!’

Of course Matt Mulder, the 95kg+ winner was grinning. ‘Hope we get this pressure all week. It was awesome out there, I just loved it.’

Open results Start : 14:05:00 Wind 21 knots at 130 deg. Waves 0.8m.

Place	From	Sail No	Boat Name	Skipper	Elapsd	Score
1	QAUS	AUS2408	Chewbacca	Matt Mulder	56:21	1.0
2	ITA	ITA11	Ronstan	Andrea Bonezzi	56:51	2.0
3	VAUS	AUS2323	AUS2323	Jono Neate	58:46	3.0
4	UK	GBR2420	Carrie2	Simon Mussell	01:00:26	4.0
5	GER	GER551	Schroeder	Christoph Homeier	01:01:14	5.0
6	WAUS	AUS2443	AUS2443	Chris Sutherland	01:01:26	6.0
7	QAUS	AUS1753	Stacey	Phillip Evans	01:01:45	7.0
8	QAUS	AUS2468	Bella Anna	Geoff Fisher	01:02:18	8.0
9	QAUS	AUS2179	AUS2179	Steven Grimes	01:04:00	9.0
10	NAUS	AUS2375	Butterfly Sandwich	Brett Holly	01:04:11	10.0
11	UK	2421	No Name	Gary Langdon	01:04:29	11.0
12	VAUS	AUS2136	Ro Shambo	Grant Robinson	01:05:39	12.0
13	WAUS	AUS2164	Juche'	Richard Shallcross	01:08:17	13.0
14	UK	GBR2407	RB Sport&Travel	Richard Buttner	01:08:22	14.0
15	NAUS	2238	Neopnee	Alan Griffith	01:08:27	15.0
16	NAUS	2338	Spider Pig	Peter Murphy	01:09:14	16.0
17	NAUS	AUS2174	The Big Kahuna	David Leask	01:09:57	17.0
18	GER	GER1421	Kabbelwasser	Dirk Mueller	01:09:58	18.0
19	VAUS	AUS2204	Erica's Diamond	Chris Peile	01:10:41	19.0
20	DEN	DEN1628	DEN1628	Lars Bo Rasmussen	01:10:50	20.0
21	ITA	ITA20	c'e le secche	Antonio Martini	01:12:43	21.0
22	QAUS	AUS2169	Carbon Credit	Stephen Toms	01:14:53	22.0
23	QAUS	225	Sticky Side Up	James Dahl	01:15:01	23.0
24	DEN	DEN2425	Jolly Jumper	Henning Wermuth	01:17:04	24.0
25	GER	GER531	Fajrant	Joachim Harpprecht	01:17:05	25.0
26	UK	GBR2318	U-Beaut	Alan Mollatt	01:19:37	26.0
27	QAUS	AUS1244	Random	Scott Bowman	01:20:10	27.0
28	QAUS	166	Gavin	Dan Haydon	01:21:03	28.0
DNF	QAUS	1329	Frantic@SupaIGA	John McLean		51.0
DNF	WAUS	2105	Mojo	Greg Barrington		51.0
DNF	QAUS	2281	Don t Know	Scott McInerney		51.0
DNF	CAN	2398	HoneyBun	Neil Smith		51.0
DNF	QAUS	AUS217	Colly Wobble	Tony Debney		51.0
DNF	VAUS	AUS232	Gogolomobile	Sean Managh		51.0
DNF	QAUS	AUS1306	Got Wood	Chris Somers		51.0
DNF	QAUS	AUS1326	BabyBoomerOnBoard	Jan Mulder		51.0
DNF	QAUS	AUS1364	Blubber Boy	Trevor Monaghan		51.0
DNF	QAUS	AUS1540	AUS1540	Roger Grimes		51.0
DNF	VAUS	AUS2296	Maho	Matthew Kee		51.0
DNF	WAUS	AUS2411	Cruising	Ross Brennan		51.0
DNF	UK	GBR2310	Mzungu	Tony White		51.0
DNF	GER	GER1789	Flyer	Alexander Groehlich		51.0
DNF	ITA	ITA111	Valiant	Emilio Betta		51.0
DNF	FRA	ITA316	MagicBoxSailingTeam	Matteo Brescia		51.0
DNF	NED	NED232	Ristretto	Mark Thorborg		51.0
DNS	UK	GBR694	Rock n Rolla	Chris Boshier		51.0
DNS	UK	GBR2314	Foxy Lady	Rodger White		51.0
DNS	UK	GBR2406	Mako	Ed Presley		51.0
DNS	ITA	ITA40	Stealth	Luca Bonezzi		51.0
DNS	ITA	ITA315	Gnuzzender	Antonio Lambertini		51.0
DNC	QAUS	AUS830	Get Me A Bucket	Rod Hieatt		57.0
DNC	CAN	CAN80	Sweet Pea	Stephanie Mah		57.0
DNC	UK	GBR505	Sherbet	David Henshall		57.0
DNC	UK	GBR2152	One Jump Ahead	Mike Denham		57.0
DNC	GER	GER2400	Herz aus Gold	Ann Seidel		57.0
DNC	ITA	ITA15	Calaf II	Luca Gusmeroli		57.0