William Kelly wins Int'l Cadets WL Curtis Series

by Lisa Ratcliff on 28 Jan 2008 Local Geelong school boy William Kelly has been declared International Cadets - WL Curtis Series winner following five windward/leeward races in Geelong’s Stingaree Bay today.

Skipper Kelly, 12, and his 10 year old crew Charlie Friend scored 1-1-2-3 in the light and fickle breezes to finish with a tally of seven points, three points clear of James Short’s Midnight Passion on 10 points and Ian Lee’s Snake Bite on 17 points. The top three boats were all sailing under Royal Geelong Yacht Club’s burgee.

Thanks to his win today, Kelly, who has been sailing since the age of seven, will have plenty of stories to tell his class mates when he returns to school this Wednesday.

“It’s going to take us a fair while to recover from this; I’m pretty happy with the win,” he said today after collecting his regatta trophy at his home club.

Kelly finished fourth in the previous series, run over Saturday and Sunday, after “mucking up one race” by not going through the finish line. “I thought there was another lap to go so I definitely could have done better in that series,” he lamented.

Commenting on today’s performance, Kelly said, “I just picked the shifts and had a good start in all races. I raced in this regatta last year and finished second. I thought Midnight Passion and Snake Bite were the ones we had to beat because at the national titles, they were in the top 20”.

The 18 tiny Cadets, sporting spinnakers the size of a large beach towel and sailed by kids, had an easy day of it. Given the light land breeze, there was plenty of time for chatting and laughing among those not so serious crews.

But for William, who comes from a sailing family and whose father Mike is a former RGYC Commodore, today was about getting a good result.

“I’ve been to Adelaide, Melbourne and Hobart with the International Cadets. I guess I will keep sailing them for a few more years then move into a Laser or something like that”.