International Cadet Australian Championships - Day 2 racing abandoned

by Peter Campbell on 25 Dec 2012 The fickle winds on Hobart’s River Derwent forced principal race officer Nick Hutton to abandon racing on day two of the Australian championships for the International Cadet class on Christmas Eve, 24 December.

Hutton and his team made five attempts to get the 76 boat fleet under way throughout the morning and afternoon, each time the wind thwarted their efforts.

Racing is now set to resume tomorrow, Boxing Day, in this significant regatta that not only will produce the Australian champion crew but will also decide the 14 Australian crews to go into next week’s World championship, also being conducted by Sandy Bay Sailing Club.

After three races on day one, the Sandy Bay SC crew of Sam Teidemann and Hugo Alison head the pointscore with placings of 2-6-6, just one point ahead of the Ukrainian crew of Oleksandr Isarov and Andriy Kalinchuk who had a score of 4-8-3.

In third place are Victorians Emily Goodfellow and Alexandra Hill from Royal Geelong Yacht Club, their placings being 13-3-1,followed by another RGYC crew, Thomas and Sophie Alexander, placing 7-2-19 on day one.

Two more Sandy Bay crews follow: Sam Abel and William Cooper and defending Australian champion Samantha Bailey and her crew, Laura Cooper.

In seventh place is the leading team from Great Britai, Samuel Yale and Harry Chatterton who placed 16-4-17 on day one.

Sandy Bay Sailing Club commodore Jill Abel could not have seen a better start to the club’s summer of sailing – her 13 year old son Sam winning the opening race of the International Cadets.

Jill has been one of the driving forces in gaining the 2012-2013 Australian and World championships for the little club that nestles among the sand dunes at Nutgrove Beach.

More than a year of planning and organising by the Commodore and her team came to fruition at the weekend when 76 of the little International Cadets lined up for Saturday’s practice race and again for the first race of the national championships.

The Australian championships run through to 27 December and will be followed by the World championship from 28 December to 4 January.