Mornington’s Mark Bulka has taken out the 2024 Contender Australian Championships held recently at the Gippsland Lakes Yacht Club at Paynesville.
Bulka aboard Balance won three of the seven races in the series, comfortably winning the event from Lindsay Irwin (Angry Tractor) and Andre Webster (Cest Ci Bon).
The fleet contained 48 competitors from all over Australia, with other race winners being Irwin, Richard Batten (Not Yet Out of the Blue), Matthew Mulder (Smile + Wave) and Olivia McKeon (Turia).
The contender dinghy originated in Australia and is high performance craft, known for being light and fast, which makes for spectacular racing.
It’s a single hander, where the helmsman controls the boat from the trapeze wire to balance the forces from the large sail.
The boats excel in wind conditions and for the past 40 years, has been the only high performance single-handed dinghy that offers international racing in competitive fleets.
It has proven to be suitable for a wide variety of sailors, both male and female, with the weight of successful sailors range from 55kg to 95kg and heights from 165cm to 200cm.
Sailing a contender requires a good deal of agility and athletic ability, with the close racing during championships rewarding 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.
The developments of the boat have enabled the boat to be raced even in rough open sea conditions.
