2027 will see the 60th Anniversary of the birth of the International Contender, so it is only fitting that the class will be heading back to its roots by holding their next World Championship at the famed Brighton & Seacliff Yacht Club, just south of beautiful Adelaide in South Australia.
For the UK sailors, packing their boats up at the end of the domestic sailing season (and then hoping that they will have returned before events kick off at home in 2027) is a well-worn pastime, with ten of the World Championships to date being sailed in Australian waters, though this will be the first time the fleet have been to South Australia.
The visit to Adelaide is shaping up to be a real delight for the Contender sailors from around the world, as it is a delightful place to visit, relaxed, friendly, with great beaches and truly superb sailing in the St Vincent Gulf. The 5o5s were just a few miles north of the city just two years ago and enjoyed wonderful sailing in a breeze that built steadily through the day but never really hit any worrying extremes.
BUT - all the signs are that the super El Nino that has been forecast may have a part to play come race day. With the latest forecasts suggesting that the UK might have to suffer a hard, cold and stormy winter, those who fly out to the event could be met with some soaring temperatures with the risk that this might give the breeze an added spice. However, as the saying at championships everywhere goes, "it's never like this normally."
For those that are escaping the cold here at home, to date everything may seem to have been in the abstract, except for those struggling through the layers of bureaucracy to deal with the task of planning the transport of boats and themselves, then dealing with the ever difficult Australian Customs and bio-security. That all changed today as ten boats arrived at the Peters & May facility in Eastleigh for the fun task of loading boats, rigs, gear and launching trollies into the container - but absolutely nothing else, as everything had to be sanitised before loading.
Under the watchful gaze of Garry Langdown the interior framework was constructed allowing the boats to be shoehorned in and the final bags of gear added.
Peters & May confirmed that the container will next head straight down to the nearby Southampton Container Port, where it will be loaded onto a ship early next week. The Suez Canal/Red Sea route is considered too dangerous so the route will take the vessel around the Cape of Good Hope and on to Singapore for transhipment to Adelaide, where it should be received and (hopefully) cleared through Customs sometime around Christmas/the New Year.
With the boats of Netley Sailing Club's Graeme Willcox and Simon Mussell, who have both won the World Championship title now loaded, the UK is sending a very good team out to Australia, and we wish them all well. Let's hope they come back with more than just a South Australian tan, because the next Worlds will be at the Weymouth & Portland National Sailing Academy in the July of 2028, the first time the event has been held in our home waters for 17 years.
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