40th Contender World Championships - a new Champion

by Rob Kothe & Al Constable on 12 Jan 2010 Today it was ‘do or die’ for several Contenders with aspirations of winning the 40th Contender World title which was on offer this afternoon.

Another sunny day as the fleet left the dock at the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron, with 12-13 knots blowing, and a little cloud to seaward. It was also very humid - a perfect day for seam bowling.

The top Contenders handled their pre-race in very different ways. Christoph Homeier (GER551) appeared a little nervous, Jono Neate (AUS2323) was out early, while Andrea Bonezzi (ITA11) looked relaxed. As he wandered down the ramp it was a frank assessment from the Italian. Looking at the breeze he commented ruefully 'If you want to put money on the 2010 World Championship put it on Jono Neate, these are his conditions not mine.'

At the start of Race 9 the fleet was held out on Waterloo Bay as a new course was set to 060. Excitement as a Windrush catamaran capsized just below the pin and the mast stuck firmly in the mud. Two men and a dog (named Mojo) were rescued as the fleet focused for the start. The breeze was now 13 knots from the north east.

As he had done in four previous starts Jono Neate started on the pin, Matt Mulder (AUS2408) just up from him with Bonezzi and Homeier. Once more Neate’s strategy worked well and he was the clear leader at the top mark ahead of Bonezzi, Mulder, Grant Robinson (AUS2136) and Homeier.

As they came in on the second reach it was Neate, Bonezzi, Mulder and Homeier at the bottom mark for the first time.

At the top mark for the second time, Neate came in from the left just one boat length ahead of Bonezzi and as they came round the mark they were nearly bow to stern.

Matt Mulder was next and then Robinson. Homeier was sixth and could be out of contention for the title.

Ten kilos lighter than his Italian rival, Jono Neate held on for another lap for a victory. Andrea Bonezzi was second, Matt Mulder third with Christoph Homeier fourth.

It was now second drop time in the ten race World Championship series. Neate dropped a seven and Bonezzi a five, meaning Jono Neate led the Contender World Championships by three points going into the final race.

The Race Committee reset the line for the final race in the 40th Contender Worlds; heading 055, distance 0.8 nm.

First a general recall, then a clear start.

The Championship leader Jono Neate was fourth up from the pin, with the twin Ronstan logos of 2009 World Champion Andrea Bonezzi next and young Christoph Homeier, one above them.

At the wing mark Simon Mussell (GBR2420) was leading, local sailor Phil Evans (AUS1753) was second with Bonezzi 30 seconds back and Neate back in seventh. Down at the bottom mark, Neate had made up a placing on Bonezzi, the duo were equal with a lap and a half to go.

Up the work however Neate in a softening breeze, outsailed the elder statesman; Neate was sixth while Bonezzi was seventh. Homeier was back mid-fleet, looking like he'd sailed his drop.

At second bottom mark, Mussell had broken well clear but the British sailor had left his challenge a little late. He was well clear of Evans and the big mover was Neate who was now third. Bonezzi was back in sixth.

All Neate needed to do was to keep his mast in the boat for another 0.8 nautical mile work to become the 40th Contender World Champion. And he did.

There were cheers as the fleet came in for the new Contender World Champion.

‘I am just stoked. I was second behind Andrea in Denmark. So this was the goal’ said the young Cadastral surveyor, who did his Civil Engineering degree at the University of Melbourne. ‘After the first two days Andrea had a good lead on us so I realised if I was going to win I had to step up a gear, so I took more risks on the start.

‘Andrea’s traditional strength has been his beat. I knew if I could be with him at the top mark then I had a chance and that was the same today. Going into the tenth and final race, I knew I had to stay within two points to be sure of the Championships and I actually did something I thought I’d never been able to do. I sat in dirty air for half a leg to stay close to Andrea figuring I just had to stay in contact, so I could attack later and that worked. I took him downwind. In contrast Christoph tacked away into clear air but on the unfavoured side.’

Neate was generally considered by the Contender fleet to be the sailor most likely to have a chance to beat the seven times world champion.

Christoph Homeier had led the series overnight but today was not his best day. ‘I had a poor start in race nine, but I fought back up to third, then my halyard gave way and down I went again.

‘In the last race I was third, sucking gas from Andrea and Jono. My third on the podium was secure. I had to do something extreme, I did and I was buried and so my drop (12th) came in. I was too conservative on my starts overall. I learned a lot here for the future and it was great sailing. Jono deserves to be champion - he was the best sailor here.

Andrea Bonezzi was very gracious in defeat, after congratulating both Neate and Homeier he said ‘I am happy with how I sailed, the conditions were good for me today. I had no breakages.

‘I am happy that he (Jono) won when I was sailing my best. He is the Champion because he sailed the best.’

Today’s winner Simon Mussell commented ‘ I left some of my best to the last day, perhaps it was the three leaders watching each other more than trying to win. The top three guys were definitely sailing at a higher level than the rest of us; we were pretty even.'

While the sailors all imagined they were just at a sailing regatta, there was another contest for the Contender fleet.

This afternoon the handsome 25 year old athlete Jono Neate was voted ‘Hottest Contender’ by the women and girls in the RQYS sailing office, bar and volunteer team.

Series Results [Open] up to Race 10 (Drops = 2)
Ties Series R10 R9 R8 R7 R6 R5 R4 R3 R2 R1
1 VAUS AUS2323 AUS2323 Jono Neate 18 4 1 [7.00] 1 1 1 2 4 4 [8.00]
2 ITA ITA11 Ronstan Andrea Bonezzi 21 [7.00] 2 3 4 4 4 1 [5.00] 2 1
3 GER GER551 Schroeder Christoph Homeier 22 [12.00] 4 2 3 2 3 [12.00] 2 1 5
4 UK GBR2420 Carrie2 Simon Mussell 34 1 [14.00] 6 2 7 6 7 3 [12.00] 2
5 QAUS AUS2468 Bella Anna Geoff Fisher 35 3 5 [9.00] 6 3 [17.00] 3 7 5 3
6 QAUS AUS2179 AUS2179 Steven Grimes 36 [11.00] 8 1 8 5 5 4 1 [61.00O] 4
7 QAUS AUS2408 Chewbacca Matt Mulder 42 5 3 [15.00] 9 8 2 6 6 3 [11.00]
8 QAUS AUS1753 Stacey Phillip Evans 57 2 7 8 5 [20.00] [19.00] 8 12 6 9
9 UK GBR2421 No Name Gary Langdon 65 [17.00] 11 4 7 10 13 5 9 [13.00] 6
10 VAUS AUS2204 Erica's Diamond Chris Peile 75 14 12 5 [17.00] [15.00] 9 10 8 10 7
11 WAUS AUS2443 (V)AUS2443 Chris Sutherland 86 8 10 14 [27.00] 6 12 14 14 8 [61.00O]
12 UK GBR2406 Mako Ed Presley 92 9 9 10 10 11 14 [20.00] [23.00] 17 12
13 VAUS AUS2136 Ro Shambo Grant Robinson 108 21 6 13 15 18 7 [28.00] [32.00] 14 14
14 ITA ITA40 Stealth Luca Bonezzi 109 13 18 11 11 [36.00] 11 9 19 [26.00] 17
15 ITA ITA315 Gnuzzender Antonio Lambertini 110 6 [25.00] 12 20 12 16 17 17 [21.00] 10
16 UK GBR2383 Bit of Wet David Davies 116 10 23 19 13 16 [24.00] 11 15 9 [33.00]
17 GER GER1421 Kabbelwasser Dirk Mueller 124 16 21 16 [23.00] 9 10 [35.50] 11 19 22
18 GER GER531 Fajrant Joachim Harpprecht 132 [26.00] 24 17 14 17 15 [27.00] 10 20 15
19 NED NED232 (V)Ristretto Mark Thorborg 135 15 [27.00] 21 21 13 18 15 16 16 [32.00]
20 UK GBR694 Rock n Rolla Chris Boshier 140 18 29 18 24 14 8 18 [35.00] 11 [29.00]
21 NAUS AUS2238 (V)Neopnee Alan Griffith 152 20 20 20 22 22 [28.00] 16 13 [61.00O] 19
22 QAUS AUS1306 Got Wood Chris Somers 161 25 22 22 [32.00] 21 21 13 21 [27.00] 16
23 7.0S NAUS AUS2375 Butterfly Sandwich Brett Holly 165 22 13 [61.00F] 25 23 26 22 27 7 [61.00O]
24 GER GER1789 (J)Flyer Alexander Groehlich 165 19 17 26 12 [31.00] 23 21 26 [29.00] 21
25 13.0S WAUS AUS2105 (V)Mojo Greg Barrington 202 [39.00] 15 25 36 32 31 26 [61.00O] 24 13
26 UK GBR2407 (V)RB Sport&Travel Richard Buttner 202 24 16 34 16 24 20 33 [38.00] 35 [36.00]
27 CAN CAN2398 HoneyBun Neil Smith 203 [35.00] 33 30 [34.00] 29 27 23 18 23 20
28 18.0S UK GBR2152 (V)One Jump Ahead Mike Denham 207 [49.00] 30 23 28 19 32 29 28 [32.00] 18
29 ITA ITA111 (V)Valiant Emilio Betta 207 32 19 32 19 [34.00] 22 [43.00] 24 28 31
30 WAUS AUS2411 (V)Cruising Ross Brennan 210 [61.00C] [61.00C] 33 33 33 25 19 29 15 23
31 DEN DEN2425 (V)Jolly Jumper Henning Wermuth 211 23 28 28 [37.00] 28 33 24 22 25 [35.00]
32 QAUS AUS1364 Blubber Boy Trevor Monaghan 232 33 31 35 18 25 [36.00] [44.00] 34 30 26
33 QAUS AUS2281 Don t Know Scott McInerney 244 27 26 [46.00] 29 38 41 [41.00] 36 22 25
34 GER GER2235 (V)Sailoraptor Michael Koch 249 34 35 29 35 26 30 [48.00] 33 [36.00] 27
35 UK GBR2314 (V)Foxy Lady Rodger White 257 [46.00] 43 27 26 30 29 37 [61.00O] 31 34
36 UK GBR2432 (V)Syringa Jerry Hone 270 [43.00] 39 41 39 42 35 25 25 [47.00] 24
37 NAUS AUS2174 The Big Kahuna David Leask 276 30 32 36 38 27 34 [46.00] [61.00O] 40 39
38 DEN DEN1628 DEN1628 Lars Bo Rasmussen 278 38 37 24 30 40 [61.00R] 39 31 39 [48.00]
39 ITA ITA15 Calaf II Luca Gusmeroli 282 37 44 44 41 [50.00] [61.00R] 30 20 38 28
40 ITA ITA20 c'e le secche Antonio Martini 292 40 34 [48.00] [47.00] 37 37 34 37 33 40
41 QAUS AUS1244 Random Scott Bowman 303 28 40 31 [48.00] 43 39 38 40 44 [44.00]
42 QAUS AUS225 (J)Sticky Side Up James Dahl 310 31 [47.00] 37 45 44 42 40 30 [45.00] 41
43 WAUS AUS2164 Juche' Richard Shallcross 314 29 51 45 46 41 38 [61.00F] [61.00F] 34 30
44 QAUS AUS226 Gopher Shuffle Ian Bowman 315 [47.00] 36 43 42 35 46 31 39 43 [52.00]
45 QAUS AUS1540 AUS1540 Roger Grimes 318 41 41 40 40 [49.00] 40 42 [44.00] 37 37
46 UK GBR2318 (V)U-Beaut Alan Mollatt 319 36 45 [47.00] 31 39 [47.00] 45 43 42 38
47 UK GBR2310 (V)Mzungu Tony White 341.5 42 46 38 44 46 [48.00] 35.5 45 [46.00] 45
48 ITA ITA316 MagicBoxSailingTeam Matteo Brescia 350 45 42 42 [61.00F] 45 43 50 41 [61.00F] 42
49 QAUS AUS1327 (V)BabyBoomerOnBoard Jan Mulder 356 [55.00] [54.00] 52 49 48 49 32 42 41 43
50 VAUS AUS2296 Maho Matthew Kee 361 61.00C [61.00C] [61.00F] 43 53 44 49 46 18 47
51 GER GER2400 (W)Herz aus Gold Ann Seidel 364 44 49 39 [50.00] 47 45 47 47 [49.00] 46
52 NAUS AUS2338 (V)Spider Pig Peter Murphy 397 48 48 [61.00F] 52 52 [52.00] 51 49 48 49
53 QAUS AUS1329 (V)Frantic@SupaIGA John McLean 409 51 [55.00] 49 54 [56.00] 50 52 48 52 53
54 QAUS AUS166 Gavin Dan Haydon 412 53 52 51 [57.00] 51 54 [56.00] 51 50 50
55 QAUS AUS830 Get Me A Bucket Rod Hieatt 425 58.00S 38 61.00F 53 61.00S [61.00S] 53 50 [61.00S] 51
56 VAUS AUS232 Gogolomobile Sean Managh 426 52 53 53 51 [57.00] 55 54 52 [61.00S] 56
57 QAUS AUS2169 (V)Carbon Credit Stephen Toms 430 50 50 54 56 58 53 55 54 [61.00S] [61.00F]
58 UK GBR589 Sherbet David Henshall 434 [58.00F] 57 [61.00Q] 55 54 51 57 55 51 54
59 CAN CAN80 (W)Sweet Pea Stephanie Mah 437 54 56 50 58 55 56 [58.00] 53 [61.00F] 55
60 QAUS AUS21 Colly Wobble Tony Debney 461 61.00C [61.00C] [61.00F] 59 59 57 59 56 53 57