Contender World Championship at Melbourne, Australia Overall

by Di Pearson 19 Jan 2002 09:34 GMT

VICTORIA VICTORIOUS AS ARTHUR BRETT WINS WORLD TITLES IN CONTENDER CLASS AT SAIL MELBOURNE REGATTA

It was an emotional Arthur Brett (AUST) that crossed this finish line this afternoon to win his second World Title on the trot this afternoon at the Sail Melbourne Regatta.

Speaking from the finish line Brett said “this is even better than the first one,” before capsizing his single-handed Contender in his excitement at winning. On righting the boat it was an emotional Brett who spoke; he lost his father Ray a month or so ago, and said “this is for my Dad”, as the tears streamed down his face.

How did he felt going into today’s race, what tactics did he employ, knowing he was trailing former three-time world champion, Italy’s Andrea Bonezzi by three places after one discard? Brett said “I was really down in the dumps, didn’t think I could do it, so I spoke to Lex Bertrand (his coach, and brother to John Bertrand, who steered Australia to its only America’s Cup win) last night, and he told me I could do it. He told me just to sail clean, to keep Andrea covered, so that’s what I did.”

So it was that the 40 year old Brett won his second World Title. Last week the Victorian won the National Title in the same class, and is also the current Victorian champion. He credits his coach, Bertrand with all his wins.

However, it was not Bonezzi who finished 2nd at the end of the day, it was the United Kingdom’s Tim Holden, quietly doing his own thing, not concerned about the Brett versus Bonezzi syndrome. Holden had an excellent seven race-one drop series. He finished with a 3-3-2-2-8-3-2 score for total points of 15, after dropping his worst race - the one in which he broke his trapeze, but was quick to repair it to finish the race. Bonezzi finished 3rd overall, his worst race today with a 36th placing for total points of 15 to Brett’s 11 points.

Sixty-five international entrants contested the series, including entries from the U.K., Denmark, Italy and the USA Brett is Victoria’s first World Champion for 2002.

Overall Results: (7 races, 1 discard)

Pos	Sail No	Helm	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	Pts
1	AUS279	Arthur Brett	1	2	3	1	2	2	-39	11
2	GBR679	Tim Holden	3	3	2	2	-8	3	2	15
3	ITA11	Andrea Bonezzi	2	1	1	10	1	1	-36	16
4	GER507	Jan Von Der Bank	-10	5	4	8	6	5	1	29
5	AUS237	Philip Dubbin	4	7	7	3	4	9	-15	34
6	AUS280	Tim Hill	5	4	9	6	13	6	-14	43
7	AUS247	Steven Grimes	7	-16	8	5	9	10	5	44
8	DEN44	Soren Andreasen	13	-14	11	4	5	7	7	47
9	AUS251	John Lindholm	11	9	6	7	14	8	-34	55
10	AUS252	Grant Robinson	14	(64F)	15	11	3	4	21	68
11	AUS281	Stephen Fries	17	10	13	(64F)	12	11	9	72
12	AUS260	Callum Burns	9	13	16	15	-18	14	10	77
13	GBR616	David Davies	6	25	5	(64F)	15	12	23	86
14	AUS238	Dan Kohlman	26	6	10	14	19	13	-37	88
15	AUS286	Mark Phillips	21	8	-27	16	17	22	11	95
16	AUS250	Darrell Faulkner	18	11	24	9	16	18	-27	96
17	GBR673	Gary Langdown	-36	29	18	27	10	19	3	106
18	GBR686	Simon Mussell	8	12	14	12	32	(64O)	28	106
19	AUS217	Andrew Turner	19	15	12	20	20	26	(64F)	112
20	GER456	Karsten Jarke	-27	26	17	17	11	16	26	113
21	AUS272	Paul Green	16	22	20	19	23	15	-24	115
22	AUS264	Marcus Hamilton	20	20	22	18	29	-32	22	131
23	GER499	Karsten Kraus	23	24	23	-28	26	20	17	133
24	GBR681	Paul Walker	15	18	28	30	22	21	-38	134
25	ITA313	Virgilio Frau	32	19	26	(64F)	21	17	33	148
26	GER495	Frank Lammerskitten	34	(64O)	29	31	25	23	13	155
27	NED217	Rene Heijnen	-38	21	34	32	31	34	4	156
28	AUS219	Andrew Barney	-40	30	21	22	30	28	31	162
29	GER483	Joachim Harpprecht	39	31	30	39	-42	24	6	169
30	AUS261	Alan Griffith	24	(64O)	31	21	27	33	43	179
31	GBR636	Nick Grace	28	28	42	(64F)	35	37	12	182
32	GBR684	Sandy Clapham	37	-46	33	24	33	39	16	182
33	GBR662	Richard Batten	12	17	19	(64F)	7	64O	64O	183
34	AUS234	Simon Dubbin	29	35	38	13	28	(64C)	47	190
35	NED225	Jaap Walter	31	34	37	26	34	31	(64C)	193
36	GBR663	Jonathan Ward	35	(64S)	45	25	39	29	29	202
37	AUS271	David Williamson	22	37	32	(64F)	43	30	40	204
38	AUS253	Damien Pound	-43	33	36	23	36	42	35	205
39	GBR646	Rodger White	46	39	43	38	37	-54	8	211
40	AUS257	Robert Roel	30	(64O)	41	64F	24	43	18	220
41	GER439	Bodo Riesen	45	36	35	(64F)	45	38	25	224
42	GBR650	Tony White	42	(64O)	39	36	41	35	32	225
43	NED218	Mark Thorborg	-53	44	40	35	47	40	20	226
44	GBR685	Chris Mitchell	25	23	25	(64F)	64C	27	64O	228
45	AUS245	Matthew Hannaford	-47	32	46	33	40	44	46	241
46	AUS226	Ian Bowman	-50	41	44	34	48	46	30	243
47	USA204	Gil Woolley	44	38	-47	37	38	41	45	243
48	AUS206	Simon Spalding	33	27	(64F)	64F	44	25	51	244
49	GBR640	Alan Mollatt	49	47	58	42	(64F)	36	19	251
50	AUS243	Peter Murphy	-52	40	49	29	46	45	52	261
51	AUS266	Marty Bennett	41	42	50	40	(64C)	47	42	262
52	AUS241	David Clayton	48	43	48	41	-50	49	50	279
53	AUS283	Ian Kirkwood	61	50	54	(64F)	52	50	41	308
54	AUS144	Andrew Mattinson	55	(64F)	55	64F	51	48	48	321
55	GER447	Fritz Selb	56	48	57	(64F)	64F	55	44	324
56	AUS270	Gerard Bini	51	(64C)	60	64F	53	53	49	330
57	AUT31	Gerald Richtarski	59	45	52	(64F)	64F	51	64C	335
58	AUT25	Andreas Keber	60	(64F)	51	64F	49	52	64C	340
59	AUS168	Rob LeMan	57	49	53	(64F)	54	64C	64F	341
60	AUS185	Tristan Bennett	62	(64F)	61	64F	55	64F	53	359
61	GER330	Ratgar Walter	58	51	59	(64F)	64C	64F	64C	360
62	GER400	Peter Zoernack	54	(64F)	56	64F	64C	64C	64C	366
63	AUS27	Amanda Aylward	(64C)	64C	64F	64C	64C	64F	64C	384