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. 

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!

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.  

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!

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.

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.

  An action (?) shot from the first World Championships at Hayling Island in 1970.
The boat on the left is K1, the original ‘Contention’!

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.

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. 

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.

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.

The Contender has been a recognised International Class by the International Sailing Federation since 1968. It has proven to be suitable for a wide variety of sailors, both male and female. The weight of successful sailors range from 55kg to 95kg (120lbs to 210lbs) and heights from 165cm to 200cm (5ft 4 to 6ft 4). Sailing a Contender requires a good deal of agility and athletic ability. The close racing during championships rewards outstanding boat handling as well as tactical skill. A race in a Contender is a combination of physical and mental challenge, with equal chances for the fittest youngsters and the more experienced sailors. Contender champions' ages vary from 20 to 50 years. The developments of the boat have enabled the boat to be raced even in rough open sea conditions.

Design: Ben Lexcen
(Australia, 1967)
Length: 4.87 m
Beam: 1.50 m
Hull weight: 83 kg
Sail area: 10.8 m2
PN: 994

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’!
 .

  In the early 1960s, Finns, like this restored Fairey boat from that era, were very much the top singlehander.
The IYRU wanted a more modern boat and would accept a sliding seat but not a boat rigged with a trapeze.

Austria

 FINLAND

NEW ZEALAND

AUSTRALIA

 France

 Norway

Belgium

 Germany

 Spain

CANADA

Great Britain

Sweden

Denmark

Italy

Switzerland

Estonia

Netherlands

USA

The Class Rules

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The International Contender Class Rules are regularly reviewed in order to prohibit the
use of exotic materials or expensive equipment. This prevents the escalating cost of sailing
"the Ultimate Singlehander".

In recent year the costs of spars from aluminium have been rising while availability
is decreasing, the cost of carbon fibre spars has been decreasing, therefore the class
has approved the use of carbon fibre masts and booms. Loose footed sails are now permitted.

Class members have repeatedly refused to reduce the bare hull weight because members
wish to preserve the market value of older hulls. Change the rig, protect the hull
investment.

The rules permit licensed and amateur builders to construct this boat. Hulls are
built successfully in all wood, composite glassfibre hull/ wood deck and all glassfibre.

You can view or download the Class Rules by clicking here.

Racing

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The International Contender has proven to be suitable for a wide variety of sailors,
both male and female. The weight of successful sailors range from 55kg to 95kg (120lbs to 210lbs) and
heights from 165cm to 200cm (5ft 4 to 6ft 4). Contender champions' ages vary from 20 to 50 years.
The developments of the boat have enabled the boat to be raced even in rough open
sea conditions.

World Championships 2008 Boat Data

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If you want to know why the top 10 Contenders at the 2008 Worlds were so fast, take a look at the boat data below.
Worlds 2008 Boat Data