Highcliffe sailors doing well at the Contender worlds in Monterey Bay
by Sarah Desjonqueres 26 Apr 2016 14:58 BST
23-29 April 2016
Highcliffe Sailing Club's super sailors Gary Langdown and Simon Mussell have swapped Christchurch Harbour for Monterey Bay this week and are competing in this year's Contender World Championships at Santa Cruz YC in California, which runs from 23rd April – 29th April.
Simon Mussell goes into the Championship as the current title holder with no intention of coming back without the trophy. He is however, being given a run for his money by fellow Brit and Highcliffe sailor, Gary Langdown.
The pair have already completed the 4 race, pre-world warm ups last week with Gary marking up 11th place and 1st Brit on the board and Simon finishing up in 15th. But with strong winds forecast Simon is feeling confident and is ready to face the challenge.
Day 1
Conditions in Monterey Bay for Day 1, saw the competitors dig deep, demanding some serious tactical decision making in some very fluky winds. From a flying start the wind had disappeared by the end of the first beat resulting in a raft of boats attempting to round the mark together. Either through skill, luck or plain guile both our boys managed to break away from the fleet and make it to the next mark ahead of the pack.
Neither Langdown nor Mussell relinquished their lead from this point on battling against each other until the end when Landown managed to pull it out of the bag and pass his compatriot, on the last beat, not 200 yards from the finish line, to take 1st place.
Race 2 brought some of the forecast stronger winds resulting in a more extreme race that, according to Langdown "was more about survival and just working your way through it". Langdown came in 6th for the second race with Mussell managing to bag a 3rd.
Overall results to date see Mussell in the top spot in 1st position with Langdown sitting in 3rd. Come on boys!