Contender Open at Poole Yacht Club

Contenders at Poole © Mike Millard

With sun, 24 degrees and force 3-4 wind, coupled with a weekend in the picturesque Poole Harbour it's no wonder the 20 Contender sailors had big grins and red faces by the end of the weekend.

Graham Scott arrived on Saturday amidst fears that his body was going to fall apart and that he'd completely forgotten how to sail, having not been in the boat since last summer.

The wind didn't quite live up to expectations on Saturday. It was easterly for the first race which was a tussle between Stu and Graham for the lead, and Carl and Mike for 3rd and 4th. In the end that was the final order.

For race 2 the wind shifted round to the south a bit meaning that the windward mark was in the lee of Brownsea Island. The first three were the same. Bit boring.

Race 3 was far more interesting as Peter Noble from Broadstairs spotted the wind had moved in more right and banged the corner to earn a nice lead at the windward mark. Sadly, he couldn't hold on and it ended up with Graham, Carl and Mike taking the top places. Stu was relegated to a fairly pathetic 5th place, and lucky to get that by his own admission.

Sunday morning was warm with little wind at first. Gave us time for a coffee on the veranda listening to Stu Jones stories of sailing around the Island of Wight in a Contender back in the days when he had a 6 pack. A 6 pack of Heineken, that is.

Contenders at Poole - photo © Mike Millard

Conditions were a bit breezier when we did get on the race track. More to the liking of Nick Nobtag, who decided to join his playmate Carl Nobtag at the front of the fleet. Again it was very shift in the lee of the island, but overall an exciting days racing.

Graham Scott just about held his body together to win overall. And even had time to take in his regular Sunday morning hydrotherapy session at the windward mark. It's good for the old bones you know. Stu 6 pack was second.

Nick had a 1,2,1 on the day to drag his shoddy Saturday results up to 3rd overall and hence earn Nobtag bragging rights.

Consistent Carl was 4th, which traditionally means report writer. But being a lazy, vegetable eating tea-totaller Carl decided to auction off the beers he won for 4th place for someone else to write the report. Cheers Carl.

The Poole fleet is going from strength to strength with 4 regular Contender sailors. Mark Raynell was an impressive 6th overall, with event organiser David Evans not far behind in 8th.

Friendly lot at Poole, which is fantastic for such a large and impressive yacht club.

A healthy feature of the Contender class is the variety of boats now in use. Hull varieties of the top 5 boats included Graham's wooden Bonezzi, Stu with a plastic Chris Somner, Consistent Carl sailed a Karsten Kraus boat, Nick and Mike had new epoxy Bonezzis.

Next event is training at Weston on 21/22, then Eastbourne Open on 28/29.

Overall Results: