Waterloo Bay Brisbane Friday Jan 8 2010.
Two sun ripened Queensland bananas strapped to the mast step of Ronstan gave multiple World champion Andrea Bonezzi a psychological edge in the opening heat of the World Contender class championship today.
Almost all of his rivals relied on energy drinks but not the defending champion who like all healthy Italians prefers a solid snack after a strenuous work out.
Winning world championships seem to come natural to Andrea Bonezzi who has won seven over the past 19 years.
This experience was again on show today when he selected a clear wind start while fellow title favourite Australian champion Matt Mulder broke the line however by the time he addressed his error all of the good sailors including Andrea Bonezzi had bolted sailing impressively in clear space into the variable 10-12 knot breeze.
Predictably Bonezzi had selected the fastest side of the initial windward beat to lead the fleet with Simon Mussell and Queensland’s Geoff Fisher closely tracking his wake to match the Italian’s speed on the reaches.
Bonezzi who appears slightly heavier was slightly slower downwind when Mussell slid past to have the upper hand when the sails were tensioned for the beat to the finish.
But the never say die attitude of Bonezzi combined with the energy boost from a banana allowed him to progressively climb back to eventually claim a 13 second win over Simon Mussell with Geoff Fisher another 18 seconds astern.
Former Australian champion Steven Grimes returning to Contender class racing after a five year break finished an impressive fourth just ahead of Christoph Homeier (Germany) and Gary Langdon (England).
Homeier then staged an exciting tactical duel with Andrea Bonezzi to claim a deserved win in Race 2 while Matt Mulder kept his hopes alive with an impressive third.
However Andrea Bonezzi with his 1-2 leads Christoph Hemeier 5-1 and Geoff Fisher 3-5 into tomorrow’s important two races which promise to present close racing with Andrea Bonezzi named as the tactical target.
By Ian Grant.