Contender Travellers Trophy Round 4 at Poole Yacht Club

Poole Contender Open © Elysia Ehrhart

Poole Contender Open © Elysia Ehrhart

The weekend of the 31st of May to the 1st of June saw the fourth round of the Contender travellers' trophy at Poole Yacht Club. With competitors making the trip from as far as Scotland, the last morning in May greeted them with glorious sunshine and a steadily building breeze the competitors headed out onto the water with around 10 knots for the first race.

The first start got away without incident and the as the competitors got towards the top of the beat, it looked like Tom Hooton had got it right on the right hand side but then a bit of a wind shift and an increase in pressure from the left saw Stuart Jones come out smelling of roses to round first, followed by Gary Langdown and Graeme Willcox and next by Tom and the remaining pack. Graeme Willcox found his way through to second for a solid first result.

The second race again started without any recalls, the wind having now freshened slightly now and was swinging around 40 degrees, the race officer eventually sent the fleet away and it seemed that everyone had a turn at leading at points, but it was Stuart Jones that managed to find the right ways and pull out an unassailable lead. In the melee of the rest of the fleet it was James Spikesley who was putting together as strong performance to finish second, followed by Graeme Willcox who was again working hard to make his way to the front in the difficult conditions.

For the third race, the wind now a touch stronger and slightly more settled. The race officer again having to adjust the course slightly, the fleet got off to another clean start and it was now Simon Mussell who took the lead with his solid upwind speed, paired with Graeme and Tom on the second round, tom got a massive gust on the run managing to get inside Graeme and Simon on the run. The next beat saw a drag race ensue between the three, with Simon on the outside heading to the right and Graeme following just behind. When Graeme tacked Tom covered and they took a few hundred yards out of Simon as they approached the windward mark on port tack, Tom got a gust and nearly went over via dipping his boom, Graeme managed to tack round inside at the mark and take the lead on the last triangle, so the race finished Graeme first followed by Tom followed by Simon.

So, after the first day Graeme was leading with a consistent set of results Stuart was second after a good start he had a bad third race, Simon was in third, with Tom fourth and Gary fifth with just a point separating the three.

On the first morning of June the fleet woke to a slightly greyer day and some breeze that was again building after a delay for the tide the competitors took to the water. With the breeze up and continuing to build Simon Mussel could now show his speed in breeze but he had people to challenge. It was Ed Presley who made the best start and got to the top mark first followed by Tyler Harmsworth, Simon and Graeme. There were a few place changes as Simon and Graeme made their way to the front. The race finished Simon first Graeme followed by Ed and Tyler.

Poole Contender Open - photo © Elysia Ehrhart

The second race of the day and the wind was now fresh and touching close to 25 - 30 knots. The fleet was now a little diminished as people had decided that they were too tired for the conditions, or were having a number of capsizes. Ed Presley again took the lead with his experimental Hartley's sail, followed by Simon and Graeme and Carl Tago. By the end of the first triangle there was not a lot separating the boats and Ed Presley suffered a mishap with his trapeze harness Velcro coming undone. On the run Carl and Graeme were jostling with Graeme, eventually getting the better of carl and making his way into second place, they were being chased down by Tom, followed by Stuart and Gary. On the beginning of last triangle Carl caught a wave wrong and did a massive capsize that allowed Tom through into 3rd, as well as Stuart and Gary who managed to keep his mast pointing at the sky all weekend.

So, the final results saw Graeme remain in first place with consistent set of results, Simon Mussell climbing to second having won the day, Stuart Jones held onto third place and Tom remained in fourth and got the honour of writing the report.

Poole Contender Open - photo © Elysia Ehrhart

The Contender travellers now move on to Felpham Sailing Club for some More Sea Sailing on 21/22 June, there is also the upcoming Contender training occurring on 28th June that is free to all BCA association Members (£20) and is aim new or intermediate Contender helm, the training will be run by Adam Bower at Oxford sailing club, if you are interest in this event please contact .

Later on in the Summer the British fleet will descend on Malcesine, Lake Garda for the 2025 World Championships.

Overall Results: