History

There are so many classes today, that it is hard to imagine a time when the choice of dinghy for a single handed sailor wanting to race internationally consisted of the International Canoe, the Finn or the OK.
The Finn of course was very much ‘top dog’ as since 1952, it had been the Olympic dinghy, difficult to tune and with the then unsophisticated rig, making it something of a brute to sail.

No wonder then that as the 1960s started to swing, sailors started looking for a boat where agility, rather than weight and body strength, would play a greater part in determining results. The path to improved performance had already been highlighted in 1962, with the lightweight flying scow from Peter Milne, the Fireball. This was a boat that was fun, fun, fun.

What was now needed was a single handed dinghy that could offer the same thrills and spills.

Eventually, the IYRU (now ISAF) agreed to sponsor a new performance single handed dinghy and published a set of criteria that allowed for a more powerful rig than was set on the Finn, that could be balanced by a sitting out ‘aid’. The choice of words is important, as sliding seats and other aids to extending the helm's weight outboard were deemed acceptable, but a trapeze was not. The view of the yachtsmen of the day, who ran sailing as a sport, was that sailing a boat single handed from the trapeze, let alone racing it, was ‘unseamanlike’!

To choose their new class, the IYRU held a set of trials at Weymouth in the autumn of 1965. The International Canoe was there, despite having been told in advance that even if it were to win the Trial Series, that it would not be selected.

The Finn was there, as a benchmark of performance.  Solos, OKs and single handed Fireballs were sailed, along with a host of new designs. There was some consternation at Weymouth when Paul Elvstrøm turned up with his new Trapez dinghy, which as it utilised the trapeze, was clearly outside of the design remit. With four consecutive gold medals in the Finn, sailing in a boat that was hi-tech when compared with most of the other entries and that he knew very well, Elvstrøm was expected to race away with the nomination, but only if he was allowed to compete.

Faced with prospect of turning away the biggest name in dinghy racing, the organisers relented. Elvstrøm raced, but although he quickly proved the potential of racing a dinghy from the trapeze, his performances were far from the expected horizon job. As the series progressed, it was the Canoe out in front, race after race, followed by the Trapez. Behind these two came the star turn of the series, David Thomas in his own designed ‘Unit’ dinghy.

The IYRU now had a problem, as the Unit had a very valid claim, that having been the best of the correctly designed boats, that it should be rewarded with International status. The response of the IYRU was to call for a second set of Trials, this time to be held at La Baule.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, an Australian Skiff designer and sailor had also picked up on the IYRU search for a new dinghy. Away from the European influences that had resulted in boats such as the Trapez and Unit, Bob Miller instead drew on his skiff background to produce a boat that became known as ‘Miller’s Missile’.

With a simple box section hull, featuring little rocker in the keel line, a fully battened main and a trapeze for the helm, the boat flew in breeze, but as Bob was to later admit, the boat “Sucked in the light stuff”.

When it came to the next phase of the design process, Bob simply lifted the hull shape of the Flying Dutchman and shrunk it down until it met the design criteria. This was a far more seaworthy and practical boat, that Bob was to name the Dorothy, after his wife.

To help the Contender along, through the difficult early days, a Launch Committee was formed from the ‘movers and shakers’ of the day to see the Contender through the process of getting builders and National Associations formed.

In this task they were soon to be joined by an irrepressible bundle of perpetual motion that went under the name of Freddie Gale. Freddie did not just get the boat established in the UK, as with his ever present partner in crime, Mike Baker, they promoted the new boat throughout Europe, making sure that the class had a true ‘international’ flavour.

La Baule was hot, sunny and with light winds. This suited some of the competitors, but not those boats with a high wetted area. The Contender looked very racy; very light and with an incredibly low freeboard, and showed flashes of form when the wind did briefly arrive. For the rest of the time the helm was either in the cockpit or hunched up on the side deck, a feeling that we all know is hardly conducive to sparkling sailing. With this second set of Trials again inconclusive, the IYRU called for yet more, this time at Medemblik.
A revised Contender, with more sail area and freeboard competed and once the breeze arrived, ran away with the Selection Committee’s nomination. With the Contender now selected by the IYRU, the powerful ‘Finn = Olympic singlehander’ lobby defended their self interest, in preserving the status quo of classes selected for the Games.

How would the IYRU turn their new singlehander into a fully fledged class with international appeal?

In 1970, the first World Championships were held at Hayling Island, an event won by ‘wild man’ Dick Jobbins.
Dick was destined not to stay on in the class and for the next few years, it was the Australian sailor, Peter Hollis, who was the man to beat on the International circuit.

The UK though had a secret weapon in the form of the an aggressively physical sailor, who would answer to the name of David Pitman – before going afloat and doing a total horizon job on the whole fleet.

The Class Constitution called for the World Championships to rotate between the North and South Hemispheres, plus, where possible, events in the Americas. When the Worlds went south for the first time, Pitman beat Hollis on his home water to take the World Championship title for the first time. With the Worlds being held out of Europe, the first European Championship was held, with Kiel, up on the Baltic as the chosen location.

As the first ten years of the class drew to a close, the UK was very much the place to be, with many of the top New Zealand and Australian sailors basing themselves at Weston Sailing Club, to sharpen up their skills on the excellent competition there. The sailors and their boats were now becoming far more proficient at racing in breeze, which was just as well, as the summers of 1976 and 1977 were very hot and sunny…but breezy.
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The Europeans at Hayling were won by one of the sailors from the early days of the class, Joachim Harpprecht, who beat a newcomer to the class, Keith Paul, in one of the few weeks of light airs. Then, in 1978, to end the decade, the class headed off to the sun at Lake Garda, an event that became famous for the emergence of Tony Smith as the new man to beat at the front of the fleet.

Geoff Whitfield leading David Pitman, as they race out towards the top mark at Lake Garda in the 1978 Europeans. The pressures of being front runners at this regatta kept them out of the high spirited behaviour ashore.

Garda also went down in history, as the location of some of the highest spirited behaviour the class had seen. The sight of the 'British Contender Team’ Transit van, parked in the town centre flower beds was ample testimony to the fun that could be had in the class.
Yet, as the Contenders moved into their second decade, some of the relaxed atmosphere would be lost, as the Contender matured into a top international dinghy, albeit one that was still being denied its place in the Olympic Regatta scene.

Feared throughout dinghy parks across Europe, not
to mention the odd ornamental flower bed or two
(and a post box), the social hub of the fleet
revolved around the British Team van.

With the Contender now very much an established international class, many of the names and personalities who had been so much a part of the scene in the early years, now moved aside.
For a while Pitman’s place looked as if it would be taken by the new ‘young gun’ Geoff Whitfield, but the second decade would belong to the very fast and committed sailors from New Zealand and Australia. Tony Smith may have won the 1978 Garda Europeans, but when the fleet made their one and only trip to the ‘Land of the long white cloud’, for the Takapuna Worlds at Auckland, it was local Pete Newlands who best survived the conditions experienced in the tail of Tropical Cyclone ‘Henry’, to win a hard fought series.

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Peter Newlands put in many months of hard preparation, for the first Contender World Championship to be held in his homeland in New Zealand.
(Photo courtesy of Sea Spray Magazine)
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One of the best heavy weather sailors the class has ever seen, Geoff Whitfield winning the Junior World Title at Takapuna Bay, Auckland.
(Photo courtesy of Sea Spray Magazine)
Then it was back to Hayling Island and that rarity in Championship racing, a dead heat, as Newlands held on to his title, albeit shared with Whitfield.
For those who couldn’t make the journey out to NZ, there were always the Europeans at Silverplana in Switzerland. Such a beautiful location with great breezes but capsize at your peril, the water was freezing. To add to the discomfort of the fleet, one night it snowed…in August! Whitfield raced away to his first full title, whilst behind him Schappi Harpprecht and Ray Collins battled it out for the runners up spot, with Collins just winning it on the last day!

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For 1981, yet another new venue beckoned, Toronto. This time the front of the fleet was dominated by a battle between Newlands and Smith, that was finally decided in favour of Newlands, as he ‘did a Pitman’ in taking three consecutive titles. After so much globe trotting, the Contenders then returned to more familiar territory, with Medemblik hosting the next Championships. At long last, ten years after joining the fleet, Tony Smith finally won the Worlds, a resulted that also confirmed the Smith hull and rig package as the best replacement for the existing Rondar / Banks set up.
After giving the impression for a year or two that the sailors in the fleet had finally grown up, the Medemblik dinner undid all their good work; candles were turned into javelins, whilst the one handed sailor Mike Hartley was ambushed by a barrage of airborne whipped cream!

Sneaky Keith Paul wriggled his way onto the final podium place to prove that when the conditions were trying, he was still a difficult sailor to beat.

"I only wanted to win a new pair of jeans”
– Tony Smith makes it to the top of the podium at Medemblik, flanked by Peter Newlands and Keith Paul.
(Photo courtesy of Jim and Dee Mackonochie)

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The Contender fleet then faced a major dilemma about going to South Africa for the next Championships. The moral right won the day and a hastily convened event was well hosted out in Australia, an event that Smith made clearly his own by winning the first 6 races. Meanwhile, more bad behaviour, this time out afloat at the San Alpidio Europeans. It started when a visiting Pitman led the ‘we want a blast’ brigade out for a sail, after the Race Officer had thought it too windy and so had gone for lunch! When the wind finally eased, it was crafty Keith again who used his big event experience to win through to take his first Contender Championships.

By now the fleets at the top events were reaching that magical three figure mark, a milestone that was passed when 114 competitors turned up for the Garda Worlds. This time it was Australian Barry Watson who would be the man to beat, ahead of Keith Paul who was busy showing that he could still handle the breezy conditions in his old age! Third place went to the leading German boat, as Joachim Rosler confirmed his status as a front runner in the fleet.

“Come up and see my hi-fi”! At the end of the week, the weather at Struer improved enough to let Keith Paul sneak into third place – and the prize of a Bang & Olufsen hi-fi system.
Liz Andrews, who sailed well in conditions that many found really difficult, has just said “but you’re old enough to be my father!”
(Photo courtesy of Jim and Dee Mackonochie)
After the warmth and sunshine of Garda, Struer, the Class’s first visit to Danish waters for a Worlds, was wet, windy, windier, wetter, windier still and then it rained even harder. The campsites flooded; sailors were forced into trying to ‘pull’ girls so as to get a dry and warm bed (their intentions were of course completely honourable), yet none of this seemed to bother Watson, who dominated the first 6 races. Tony Smith was the best of the rest, with Keith Paul third. Spare a thought for poor Greg Lamb, who wiped out at high speed and broke his leg. It really was that sort of week!

This second phase of the Contender history ended with the Class back in the US, at Santa Cruz YC (home of Gil Woolley).

Watson was there to get that all important third win in a row, but a poor event by his standards coincided with local Mark Starratt putting together an excellent series to become the first – and only American to take the title. Sadly, Mark’s undoubted skills were soon lost to the fleet as he was to die at an early age, leaving the third era of Contendering seeking yet another new Champion.

But still no key to the Olympic door for the Contender!

The third decade of the Contender started with the fleet back in Europe (just) as they travelled north to the Swedish town of Hamburgsund. The usual suspects were there, Barry Watson, Keith Paul, Schappi Harpprecht, but so too were the forerunners of a new breed of Contender sailor. Conditions that week varied from rough to ‘interesting’, a term that failed to do justice to some of the jury decisions about what constituted pumping. Watson, looking for revenge after Santa Cruz, found what he described as the “biggest ing hole in the history of sailing”. No such problems for Jon Webb, who sailed a consistent series to take the title ahead of Frank Suchanek.

Watson took solace by winning the next Europeans, then it was a case of ‘off to Brisbane’. In very windy and testing conditions that should have favoured the fearless Australian sailors, it was another Brit, Steve Daniels, that blew them away on their home turf. Steve retained his title when the fleet went to Travemünde; other hopefuls John Browett, Steve Grimes and Nigel Walbank failed to pull together good results across the series.

At about this time, the old chestnut of Olympic status became a hot topic once more. Despite the obvious charms of the Contender and some excellent lobbying by the class, the entrenched Finn clung on to its position.
The whole sailing scene was changing though as skiffs started to appear in many shapes and sizes, including a number of single handed versions. Suddenly and through no fault of its own, the Contender was no longer the hottest trapeze harness in town.

1990… and with a zero at the end of the number, it had to be Hayling Island. Steve Daniel was the next sailor to aim to ‘do the Pitman’ and go for three titles in a row. A rapidly improving Andrea Bonezzi could also have won, but got a horror story redress judgement after another boat damaged his rig. Chris Burrough joined John Browett as the fastest sailors NOT to win the Championships, which instead went to John Hardman.

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It was Stuart Jones who was best known for his liking for lamb; John Hardman preferred his prey to get their own drinks. Well, if you’ve just won the World Championship, what is a man to do?
(Photo courtesy of Jim and Dee Mackonochie)

• this time Sicily! The event looked like being another Brit benefit, until, on the last day, Andrea Bonezzi came from behind to take the title, watched by his friends and family.

After a Europeans at Bastad in Sweden (it’s not the word, but how you say it that counts), won by Graham Scott, it was time for another trip to Australia.

With the boats all now sporting the new wonder material, Pro-Grip (how did we manage before??) Chris Burrough again looked the man to beat until Barry Watson, making a one off return to the class in a borrowed boat, snuck through to win yet another title.

Chris Burrough, one of the fastest sailors
never to win the top prize!
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Stuart Jones at his best (i.e., not a sheep in sight, nor has he been sick
in the back of his car!) showing top class control at Garda.

With so many new boats around, the Contender fleet tried once more for Olympic glory, yet despite the best efforts of Torkel Lindhal and Frank Havik, the Finn retained the single handed slot and the chance for the Contender to experience greater glories had passed.
No matter, there was still a World Championship to win and with the venue a class favourite, Medemblik, a 100+ boat fleet was assured.

It went to the wire in the last race as Nigel Walbank and Andrea Bonezzi slugged it out in a tacking duel. Whilst they were otherwise engaged, Stuart Jones sneaked through to grab his first Championship win.

Away from Stuart and his interest in Ovis Aries, the news was of the new kid on the block, the RS 600. Whatever the attractions of this new boat, nothing could match the Contender scene as the fleet headed off to Austria and the spectacular location of Attersee. Against a fleet rich in past Champions, Graham Scott showed he was as good on the helm as he was on the harmonica as he too added a World Championship win to his record.

One record that was not so well publicised was that of Jan von der Bank as he won the rapidly degenerating late night entertainment with a high speed striptease! One cannot be too careful with these things – with the fleet heading off to Roton Point in America, such behaviour might have been frowned upon. It didn’t stop Keith Paul’s boat appearing, full rigged, in the hotel lobby, nor John Browett's boat, minus its stern hatch, taking a dip in the pool.

3pj.jpgIan Renilson, flanked by Neil Wilson and Jason Bebee.
Ian is about to ...in no particular order...lock his keys in his car, try and drive away without first hitching the boat on, and jam a contact lens in his eye (thus putting himself into the hands of Nigel Walbank, a scary thought!)
ian_rennilson_.jpgLike Stuart Jones, Ian Renilson is very much a ‘thinking’ sailor.
With Neil Wilson and Jason Beebe, the three sailors from Scotland trained hard together, a factor that played strongly in Renilson’s superb form.
Graham Scott avoided the worst of the on shore events to retain his title with the other two past Champions on display, Stuart Jones and Andrea Bonezzi, taking the other top place.
With Hayling Island being rebuilt, the next best thing (many would say better…full stop) was Weymouth. A big fleet and difficult conditions saw one of the class ‘thinkers’, Ian Renilson, take a well deserved win from Neil Wilson and Jason Beebe.

In 1997 the wonderful city of Sydney was alive with Olympic fever as the preparations for the Games went into overdrive. But first there was the little matter of the Contender World Championships to hold, when for once the famed harbour breeze failed to blow. The lighter weather looked to favour current champion Ian Renilson, who was well placed to continue his form from Weymouth until his boat was ‘t-boned’ in an unfortunate accident. An incredible all night effort ashore saw his boat back on the water the next day, whilst the Protest Jury was far more sympathetic to him than they had been to Andrea at Hayling.

Ian pulled out all the stops and won two races in a day, but it wasn’t enough to claw the initiative back from Bonezzi, who kept a tight grip on the event to win his second title. Ian took his revenge at the Europeans held at Aarhus, to add another title to his growing list of successes.

The following year the fleet chose another exotic island location for their championships. Sardinia is famous for hosting the glamorous Swan Gold Cup; however the glitzy lifestyle of the Costa Smerelda didn’t extend as far as the noisy and stony campsite where most of the fleet were based.
Some turned to an excess of alcohol as an aid to sleeping (or so they said) to the point that Keith Paul, who is surely old enough to know better, took a tumble and broke a rib or two.

Only the British Contender Fleet would think of using a sheep lorry to transport their boats to a major event
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Stuart Jones, Graham Scott and Andrea Bonezzi on the podium in Sardinia. They may have been successful in the week, but could not match
the eyes of the ladies in reception!

There was consolation however in the young ladies who ran the Regatta Office, the surge in testosterone clearly fired up a number of sailors.
Nigel Walbank capped back to back wins with an OCS, the ever present Andrea Bonezzi was never far from the top of the leader board, but in the end it came down to another pair of ex-champions to slug it out as Graham Scott and Stuart Jones contested the final day.

In the end it was Jones who prevailed to take his second win, once again to a chorus of bleating noises from the UK fleet… hardly a surprise there as most of the boats had arrived on the Island in the rear of a sheep lorry!

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The end of the millennium, the ‘Millennium Bug’ and yet more politicking from ISAF. They already had two top International singlehanders, soon they would add to this list the Joachim Harpprecht designed ‘Musto Performance Skiff’ – which would be the final nail in the coffin of the Contender's Olympic aspirations.
The Contender could still attract a top class fleet for its main championships though, as at Kiel the ‘big four’, Bonezzi, Scott, Jones and Renilson, would be joined by John Browett in a ‘top of the table clash’. Scott and Browett dented their chances with mid week black flags, and on the last day only Bonezzi and Browett were left in contention for the title. The Brit picked up a penalty, leaving the consistent Italian to take another well earned Championship.

For the 2000 Championships it was once again back to Medemblik, where a 107 boat fleet almost became 108 as Bernard Shapley’s dinghy was almost cut in two by a powerboat. In the racing, the big names were very much again to the fore, but then some uncharacteristic results in the teens put paid to the chances of Jones and Renilson. The way looked clear for Andrea to collect his 4th title when on the penultimate day, Gabriel Wicke won both races. In the start of the last race of the event, Andrea got into a tangle and had to take a 720º penalty, leaving Gabriel to climb clear into the second place that would make him Germany’s first Championship winner.

Ashore, all the talk was now of Carbon rigs and the difficult question - would the expensive upgrades split the class? Meanwhile, there was a Europeans to contest at Loctudy, where Frank Suchanek won four races, yet only just scraped into the top ten as the light airs consistency of Ian Renilson added more silverware to the sideboard.

The Worlds meanwhile shifted back to Canada, where a small fleet more than made up for the lack of numbers by the quality of the event and the heat of the competition.
The early assumption had been that Andrea would dominate the event but in the end it was Arthur Brett who showed that attention to detail, plus his relentless practice schedule, would bring him success.

Arthur repeated the trick on his home waters of Black Rock YC, near Melbourne, in an event notable for some of the breezy conditions sailed in.

Back in Europe, Graham Scott won the Hellerup Europeans and must have looked the firm favourite for when the Worlds came to Plymouth, his ‘home base’. It looked even better for Graham when early on, Bonezzi found a hole in the wind. Whatever the Italian is for the “biggest ing hole in sailing” might be, it certainly ranked with the one that did for Barry Watson in Sweden. However, Andrea showed his true class by bouncing back later in the week to win an incredible 4th World title, ahead of Tim Holden and Stuart Jones.
At Garda the following year, Andrea made few mistakes to win the title once again, whilst behind him the growing threat of Marcus Hamilton and Tim Hill let potentially championship winning positions slip from their grasp. Could Andrea now make it ‘3 in a row’ when the fleet went up to Travemünde in Northern Germany?
First though the Contender Fleet had to say a last farewell to Freddie Gale, who finally succumbed after a typically brave and resistant battle with illness. Freddie’s vision had given the class much of its direction, there was no better tribute to him than the class once again mustering well over 100 boats for its premier event.

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A beautiful boat, beautifully built and sailed…beautifully.
Andrea, with his famous I (ITA) 11 leitmotif, showing how to win
– and to keep on winning
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Once again it looked like a Bonezzi / Hamilton battle out front, but as the week progressed it was Jan von der Bank who kept his nerve to move into the lead.
The event would be decided on the final day, but then, even after the whole fleet had been towed out to the start area; racing was finally abandoned - leaving Jan as the new Champion.

There was no lack of wind at Fremantle, where the famed ‘Fremantle Doctor’ blew with its usual ferocity. The heavy weather stars were very much in evidence, with Brits Simon Mussell and Tim Holden mixing it with Tim Hill, Marcus Hamilton and Jan Von der Bank. Then, with everything set for a grandstand final, the wind went light and Andrea Bonezzi drew on all his experience to win once more, a truly amazing record of 6 World Championship wins.
Christoph Homier won the Europeans at Ebensee, and then once again it was back to Medemblik and another monster fleet of 148 boats.

Marcus Hamilton, who had been close to winning the title in previous years, finally overcame his great rival, Andrea, at the 2007 World Championships at Medemblik
Søren Andreasen, Graham Scott and Andrea Bonezzi all looked strong, with Homier and Giovanni Bonzio just waiting for one of the top boats to leave an opening. In the end though it was Marcus Hamilton, who had already been second in the event a number of times, who went into the final day with the all important points advantage. With a strong wind blowing and visibility poor in the driving rain, the Race Committee decided against sending the fleet out afloat, a situation that resulted in Marcus being ceremoniously thrown into the harbour as the new Champion. The following year in Ontario (where the promised Kingston Thermal did not materialise), Marcus demonstrated his prowess in light air too, winning the 2008 Championships and announcing his retirement from racing the Contender.

The International Contender class now has fleets in more than twelve countries throughout the world. There are over 2400 Contenders built in various parts of the world, with 148 boats built in the last five years.