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THE CLASS IS LAUNCHED

The Contender dinghy was originally designed back in 1967 by Australian Ben Lexcen as a potential Olympic successor to the Finn class. The boat won the 1969 Olympic trials, but for a variety of reasons was never adopted as an Olympic class

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.