British team report from Contender European Championships at Lake Attersee, Austria

A couple of weeks have allowed the British travelling Contender circus to recover from the road miles after they had headed off from various ports in a menagerie of vans to congregate at Lake Attersee in Austria for the European Championships.

Chris Boshier was even good enough to do weeks of internal conversion work on his new van, but selflessly strip it all out prior to leaving to make sure that his travelling companions Stuart and James did not feel out of place in the luxury.

Although arrival for the ever vigilant and prepared Gary and Helen was a lot later than scheduled after the most stressful and costly fuel stop, everyone made it to the beautiful lakeside. Electrics duly daisy chained into the nearest tree mounted safety hazard in the random characterful camp 'field', and all good to go.

However - 'Go' was not a popular phrase when talking about launching!

For those who had entered the pre-Euro Austrian Nationals, as well as having the joy of hearing the first attempt at weather positivity from the OD, and the full lecture on the importance of the trackers, they went on to enjoy just two very light random direction races out of the scheduled eight over three days. No Austrian champion yet (to be decided from Euro's), and for passing note only - Stuart Jones was first Brit in fifth from 47, with Chris Boshier sixth and Tom Hooton eighth.

For the record, although Ed was quizzed in detail at least three times, he didn't enter....or at least didn't pay, so despite their best efforts, could not be persuaded to collect his tracker for it just to show the route to the bar.

As I think the two races above took place on Thursday, a few days then ensued which included loosing track of which day it was, trying to translate and try all the club food and drinks on their stunning frontage overlooking the lake, free beer from the Zipfer bar, and measurement!

The latter is always memorable, but this version was remarkable only for it's relative efficiency and the random choice of national boats for a full check. As nearly the largest overseas contingent at 15, we had a few names up, and Gary had to be foolishly trusting to delegate his vessel strip search to myself and others - while he and Helen got drenched on a mountain day trip - yes - the rain arrived just in time for measurement.

John McClean was also on the 'list', but eventually struck a deal thanks to entering two boat numbers. However - as he became an honorary GB, we witnessed the fastest lowering of an Aussie flag from the club poles.

Sunday arrived, theoretically first racing day, and the AP went up after the 9am briefing, followed by much coffee, chat and Attersee wind app looking. Feeling woefully unprepared, we were hastily sent out late afternoon when 17knts appeared from nowhere. It looked good, but looks are not everything, and while the early launchers careered around at random angles and in different levels of pressure, those later off barely made it through the pontoons before it switched off.

15 mins later - we were sent in, which took a while. Free beer time.

Monday, briefing put back to 10am due to such poor attendance previously given the obvious lack of steady zephyr, and the OD was getting into his un-enviable stride of describing how every bit of the lake was giving different or no readings. AP back up to hang next to the also limp Austrian red and white. No racing today.

Tuesday, AP back in place, sun fully back out, some dubious rules not adhered to in a paddle board relay dangerously close to some of the expensive looking long tall lake boats (perhaps a clue to normal conditions!), and more sitting around. The next big clue to expectations was the free bar being opened for an hour at 11am!

However - with unfortunately too much speed for Steve Emby (who was on other side of lake seeing something other than the bar), the AP came down at 17.15 when some thermal stuff arrived, and finally we were off for race 1.

In a nice 14knts, Tom pulled off a stunning port start and crossed everyone, but those who hung out further left came in to mark 1 looking better, and Rob Smith rounded first in close company with Max Billerbeck, Stuart, Tom, Soren Andreason, Marcus Meisenbacker and Ed Presley not far behind.

Rob held this slender lead on the reaches, beat 2, and the run, with the chasing bunch being led mainly by Max, however at the bottom of the run Jesper Armbrust followed Rob round the right hand buoy and tacked immediately as the wind had gone further left. Rob held out too far left and paid the price by losing out to Jesper for the win, but just holding off Max, with Stuart a close fourth and Ed ninth.

One race in the bag after a 7.30pm finish on day 3, all the talk at the open air bar and later at the pizza house - will Wednesday be big enough to get a championship?

Wednesday, obviously AP back in place, but with a slightly more favourable forecast this time only until up till midday when some ripples appeared and no-one was surprised who we were sent out, taking lots of water and snacks.

Please excuse the lack of detail, as all four races that were squeezed into Wednesday afternoon/evening were busy, light, shifty, tricky and for your author, generally disappointing after some promising starts and positions. It seemed most people found them challenging, however a few notable names kept putting in good counters.

Race 2 was won by Stuart who led for the majority of it, with Gary Langdown third, split by German Joerg Gosche and with Jesper backing up his win yesterday with a fifth.

Race 3 was notable by British absences in the top ten barring Gary in tenth, with Adrian Smith not far back in thirteenth, and Stuart having a forgettable discard right down in the 40s. The honours were taken by Joerg first, and another lightweight - Italys Bruno Orfino in second.

Race 4 - after some following the committee boat, was started in worryingly light conditions but continued as the others, i.e. with some in-boat crunching and some high wiring. This time Stuart placed highest Brit in tenth with Bil Hooton thirteenth, another German - Gernot Goetz won this one with popular third place for Joachim Happrecht, and Jesper banking another fifth.

With things able to go many ways at the top, and Stuart still in the hunt, the race team surprised a few by fitting in another race to allow a discard. Adrian had been getting closer and was top Brit in sixth, with Stuart ninth, and Tom tenth. Although won again by Gernot, crucially Antonio Lambertini kept his best from a string of top ten counters to come third, and Jesper eighth.

We just made it ashore before the last of the breeze went back to the mountains at 7.30pm.

When the counting was done, this left only 5 points separating the top four with Jesper retaining his European title, Antonio a very popular second, Soren with similarly consistent top ten results in third, and Stuart flying our flag again in fourth counting a 1st, 4th, 9th and 10th. Other Brits in the top 20 were Gary in 12th, Adrian 13th, Rob 17th and Tom 19th, with the others being listed on the full results below.

My brother and I tried to ignore the beautiful force 3-5 for most of the un-used Thursday reserve day, while we packed up! Attersee won't be remembered for that, but may be for good hospitality, a lovely club, and an OD who did his absolute best and retained his dry humour.

Nice place to go, but perhaps leave the Contender at home.

Overall Results: