Waldringfield Cadet Week 2022

Waldringfield Cadet Week 2022 © Robert Deaves / www.robertdeaves.uk

After a packed summer of sailing activity, some were concerned that Waldringfield Cadet Week might fall foul to exhausted children (and parents) needing a bit of a rest. Their fears were, of course, quite unnecessary.

CW22 followed the tried and tested formula which has been established over decades - great competition; varied courses; a coached regatta fleet for the less experienced; evening socials for sailors and parents alike; crews', ex-cadets' and old gaffers' races; camping; treasure hunt; outdoor cinema - Top Gun Maverick anyone? And free rash vests for all courtesy of our generous sponsors Seamark Nunn and Gill. A big thank-you to them in their 15th year of supporting this event.

Waldringfield Cadet Week 2022 - photo © Robert Deaves / www.robertdeaves.uk

Such was the excitement to make the week a success that some sailors hot-footed it back from the RS200 Nationals on the south coast overnight, others borrowed local boats and hitched lifts from far and wide when they realised their parents couldn't bring them, and visitors aplenty came from as far afield as South Cerney and Rickmansworth to join in the fun. All of this resulted in a very healthy entry of 21 Cadets in the main fleet and 6 in the regatta fleet who had 2 days of training followed by 2 days of coached racing.

Friday's racing was a relatively light wind affair but with beautiful blue skies and, after a bit of patient waiting ashore, some sea breeze was building down river which provided challenging shifts and interesting courses. The day saw race wins for Amelia Mayhew / Hettie Thorogood, Toby Bush / Kemmel Thorogood and Mish Collingridge / Rhona Enkel leaving the latter just ahead of Amelia / Hettie overall overnight. The sailors were quite late ashore but had a great time feasting on Heidi's lasagna and discussing the day's activities whilst one or two of us elder folk might have been concentrating on ensuring the bar made a profit for the week.

Waldringfield Cadet Week 2022 - photo © Robert Deaves / www.robertdeaves.uk

Day 2 saw a change of location for the racing. In a pretty fickle and challenging northeasterly the 2 races in the morning were run up towards the Tips area with the island providing some shelter from a fast incoming tide. Toby / Kemmel and Mish / Rhona shared the honours before the fleet had to return to the shore to avoid becoming caught up in the Club racing. After a break for lunch the only decent available place for a beat was going to be down past Prettyman's Point in the reach towards the Ramsholt. So in a nicely strengthening sea breeze we set up a tricky windward leeward in the part of the River Deben we don't usually race in and where calling the tidal offset correctly and not overlaying the windward mark were all important. Ines Green / Tom Krailing had this one beautifully in control and sailed to a comfortable win - their first of the week.

As the fleet set off back to the Club we realised we could get in the hotly contested Crews' Race starting up through the Rocks and taking in Buoys C and B on the way home - a more challenging course than we would typically set. Tom Krailing charged off into the lead up the first beat only to be slowly hauled in and overtaken by Rhona Enkel on the spinnaker reach home. At the finish 3 boats were closely battling for the win as competitively as if their helms had been on the tiller - great prospects for the future. It was by now beginning to get quite late but the Ex Cadets' race, and Old Gaffers' races were still slotted in as the sun set on a great day's activities. Alan Krailing triumphed in the former with Matt White / Rhona Enkel just accumulating sufficient years between them to take the Old Gaffers' (rules: helm >35yrs and aggregate age >70). Suffice it to say some of the Old Gaffers' helms had sufficient years under their belt to compete alone but the race rules still required them to take a crew! Saturday night was a DIY barbeque at the Club with everyone pretty exhausted from what had become quite a full on day.

Waldringfield Cadet Week 2022 - photo © Robert Deaves / www.robertdeaves.uk

On to Sunday and the main fleet were to be joined by the regatta fleet, albeit the latter starting 5 minutes later. The race course was back up towards the Galleons area of the River where the easterly breeze forced us to set a windward mark up towards the trees on the left hand bank. This was going to be challenging racing as a lift on port tack at the right moment put the Cadets on a strong tidal conveyor belt taking them up to windward very quickly but coming into the buoy was horrible as the wind died and shifted under the trees. Miss the conveyor belt and you had a lot of catching up to do! Getting in and out of the danger zone at the top was also all important to a good result. The first race of the day, Race 7; a triangle/sausage was won by Robbie Stewart / Dylan McArdle whilst race 8 was taken by Ines / Tom who profited from a tacking battle between Toby / Kemmel and Mish / Rhona who one might hope learnt a lesson not to get too embroiled with fighting each other and together squandered a big lead. Race 9 was held back to back as the river started to get really full and saw Amelia / Hettie take their second win of the week.

Regatta fleet saw James Bailey / Jasper Bush master the conditions best and register 2 wins with the other win going to Jacob Myers and Finbar O'Malley. This fleet of 6 boats may have been small and only still learning the ropes but they enjoyed at times some close racing and judging from the inter-boat banter they were clearly having a great time.

Waldringfield Cadet Week 2022 - photo © Robert Deaves / www.robertdeaves.uk

Sunday afternoon then saw the traditional Walders Maheusive Treasure Hunt. Rumour has it that the Clue Master was in a particularly devious mood when setting the course this year but nevertheless there was some serious effort being put in by the teams to answer all the questions and then get back to have their scores marked by the aforementioned Clue Master who they had to track down in the pub. That was followed by some serious chilling at the outdoor movie night whilst the parents had a little drinks party back at the clubhouse. Nothing to report there!

Going into the final day things were delicately poised in the main fleet. Mish / Rhona were still leading and had a very consistent set of scores but Robbie / Dylan, Toby / Kemmel, Ines / Tom and Amelia / Hettie all still had a shout if results went their way. In race 10 Robbie started to apply some serious pressure on Mish / Rhona by taking the win but the latter responded with a win in race 11 which as a result of their earlier consistency was enough to win overall with a race to spare. With Toby / Kemmel bagging a 2nd to Robbie / Dylan's 5th that put them in a strong position going into the final race.

Waldringfield Cadet Week 2022 - photo © Robert Deaves / www.robertdeaves.uk

Meanwhile James / Jasper continued their form in Regatta Fleet scoring a perfect score of three wins on their day two to take the overall win from Jack Dingwall / Luka Merriman 2nd and Jacob / Finbar 3rd.

And so one last race. Some great racing in The Rocks saw Toby/ Kemmel and Ines / Tom have a real ding dong battle around the course; the former with more power on board faster up the beats and the latter quick enough downhill to reel them back in again. After a long career as Cadet crew and helm this was Ines' last ever race in a Cadet and some of us unbiased observers rather wanted to see her finish with a win. Despite the many reasons he might have to be nice to Ines, Toby was having none of it and of course that's just how it should be - close competition, fairly fought, all the way to the finish line - where he finished just seconds ahead. That left Mish and Rhona 1st overall - they'd returned unnecessarily at the start, with Toby and Kemmel 2nd just a couple of points ahead of Robbie and Dylan.

Waldringfield Cadet Week 2022 - photo © Robert Deaves / www.robertdeaves.uk

Within the main fleet there was a "silver fleet" category - Cadet sailors with sufficient experience to race without coaching but perhaps still not yet ready to consistently challenge the front runners (although there were certainly occasions when they did). First silver fleet boats overall was Josh Davidson and Rosie Hancock from South Cerney ahead of Oscar Bush and Emily Krailing. Josh and Rosie did a great job mastering the tidal River Deben, all the more impressive given the tides experienced in the Cotswolds.

So that was a wrap. A very efficient prize-giving followed - one of the features of Cadet Week is a wonderful history of trophies which have been donated over the years. Many of the names on the silverware are back now as parents and grandparents showing the longevity of this cracking little junior boat - Jack Holt's Cadet Dinghy and of Waldringfield Cadet Week in particular.

Overall Results:

Regatta Fleet Results: