Contender Worlds - Waterloo Bay, the Washing Machine

8:00 AM Mon 4 Jan 2010 GMT

'2010 Australian Championship, Race 1.
For many in the fleet the best bit was coming home. Geoff Fisher leading the fleet back into the harbour after racing' Suellen Hurling &copy Click Here to view large photo

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.

2010 Australian Championship, Race 1. Lars Bo Rasmussen (DEN) - Suellen Hurling &copy Click Here to view large photo

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

by Rob Kothe

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