Weston Sailing Club were the hosts for the latest round of the Contender Travellers Series over the weekend of 3rd/4th August. A forecast of warm conditions and a reasonable breeze had encouraged 19 keen competitors to enter for the weekend with many competitors arriving early on the Friday to make use of the overnight camping.
With National Champion Graeme Wilcox again not able to make it due to Americas Cup commitments, some may question his priorities, the event was wide open for someone else to secure a victory.
To enable the fleet to warm up the race officer set a short two laps for race 1 and the fleet were soon to learn that the wind is far from stable in direction and strength at Weston especially when a large container ship is exiting down the channel. With many place changes Gary Langdown established a lead up the second beat only to be overhauled by Stuart Jones on the short hitch to the finish when he sailed into a hole, third was James Spikesley.
The race officer added a lap to the course for Races 2 and 3 as the wind increased a little. With the wind still unstable in direction and speed it was a surprise to a number of the fleet when both of these races were won by Simon Mussell, showing good speed and unusually good tactics for him, to hold off Tom Hooton and Ed Presley respectively.
Sunday's racing was delayed for a short while with half of the fleet launched and the other half staying ashore, to enable the wind to fill in and the first race of the day started with the fleet sat on the side tanks, the wind gradually increased throughout the race and the day to flat out trapezing by the end of the day, but still variable in direction.
Race 4 was won by Stuart Jones followed by Tom Hooton and Simon Mussell, with race 5 won by Tom Hooton with James Spikesley and Ed Presley in second and third. Race 6 was sailed in the best breeze of the weekend and was won by Gary Langdown followed by Stuart and James, so the fleet came ashore not really knowing who had won.
After the scores were tallied up and the discard applied the overall results were Stuart Jones first, Tom Hooton second and Simon Mussell third.
Thanks go to Weston Sailing Club, Nick Curry and the team of volunteers who organised a very enjoyable weekend. It is now on to Italy and Switzerland for a number of the fleet attending the European championship at the end of August, with the next UK event to be held at Castle Cove Sailing Club on the 14th & 15th September.
With just two more UK events for the Contender fleet this year, plans are already coming together for a bumper 2025 with the World Championships held in Florida at the start of the year with a good fleet of UK boats already booked up and the UK Nationals to be held at Shoreham Sailing club in September 2025 keep an eye out on the British Contender website www.sailcontender.org.uk for updates and information later in the year.
Overall Results : -
Pos Sail No Helm R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 Pts
1st 2706 Stuart Jones 1 3 3 1 ‑4 2 10
2nd 678 Tom Hooton 5 2 4 2 1 ‑6 14
3rd 2420 Simon Mussell 4 1 1 3 6.5 ‑9 15.5
4th 2484 Gary Langdown 2 4 5 ‑7 5 1 17
5th 705 James Spikesley 3 5 ‑9 5 2 3 18
6th 2708 Ed Presley 8 6 2 ‑13 3 7 26
7th 2709 Mark Watts 6 ‑11 10 4 6.5 5 31.5
8th 27 Richard Batten ‑15 13 6 8 8 4 39
9th 2747 Tony Brooks 7 ‑14 7 6 11 8 39
10th 2729 Chris Howe 11 8 ‑13 10 9 11.5 49.5
11th 2702 Chris Boshier 10 ‑12 12 9 10 10 51
12th 666 Bill Hooton 12 ‑15 11 11 12 13 59
13th 2589 Nathan McGrory 9 10 ‑15 14 13 14 60
14th 2661 Nick Curry 14 9 14 ‑16 14 11.5 62.5
15th 2714 Martin Jones 13 7 8 17 (RET) DNC 65
16th 696 Tony Cook 17 17 ‑18 12 15 15 76
17th 712 Rodger White ‑18 18 17 15 16 16 82
18th 2751 Richard Buttner 16 16 16 (DNC) DNC DNC 88
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