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The Contender

I first saw a Contender when I was a child, on holidays in S. Benedetto del Tronto (AP, Italy); I was delighted by this wonderful wooden boat, and scared by the idea: on the contender, you are the helmsman and the crew at once! The sail is huge (11 m²), and in strong wind you are supposed to:

1. lean out of the boat appended at the trapece;
2. control the helm through a terribly long rudder extension;
3. never loose the mainsheet;
4. tune the wang, the cunningham, ant the [base]

Tacks and runs are scary: when the wang is tight, the [boma] is terribly low, and there's hardly half a metre of room.

But on such a boat you may have great fun: under strong wind, it literally flies on the water, and you feel a king.

At those times I was a windsurfer: do you remember the Tencate? I still have it, the wishbone is of teak! Plain jurassic! Then my life took different directions, and I came back to sailing much later, thanks to Gennaro Cangiano.

Now that I finally plan to live in Triest for the next two years, I finally decided myself to buy me a Contender, thus realizing the child's dream. Maybe it's too late, maybe I'm too old; but I wish to give it a try. Her name is...

Here are some pictures (click to enlarge) of one of the first attempts, que dolor:

Maybe I'll make it...

No, I don't. Oh shame: capsize exactly in front of the optimists of the sailing school! It's the rudder's fault... well... oohhh, shut up!

Pullllll!

Argh, Pant...

Seem cool... from far away....

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