South African sailing magazine archive turns up great stories of the Cadet class in the 1960s
by Magnus Smith 21 Jun 03:12 PDT
Bruce Walford and Christopher Keal versus Trevor Donald and Machal Mundy - racing in South Africa in the 1960s © Richard Crockett & Sailing Publications /
www.sailing.co.za
Thanks to Richard Crockett of 'Talking Sailing' there is an archive of scanned paper magazines from the Sixties, and while they mainly focus on local racing in South Africa, there is enough of historial interest to attract Brits in a few interesting cases.
For example, I got distracted by a report from the 1959 Flying Dutchman Worlds (held in Whitstable, UK) and a first-person account from Paul Elvstrøm about designing the Trapez dinghy, before getting down to the series business of finding references to the International Cadet class.
Any fans of dinghy history will probably find something to dip into on Richard's website, if they hunt long enough.
1962
The oldest mention of Cadet activity was particularly interesting, despite being limited to the activity at Point Yacht Club in Durban. To start with I am fascinated by the formal assessment scheme, which separates their 100 kids into crews, cruising helms and racing helms.
...efficiency tests - modelled on those in use in Britain - have been introduced. The "A" certificate is given to those who, in addition to having qualified in the "B" test, prove their knowledge of racing rules, local weather conditions and harbour regulations; pass a test in rope work (including splices); and demonstrate their ability to handle a boat in a Force 4 wind.
As ever, it is noted that the club's thriving junior scene only came about because of tireless adult volunteers; all praise be to them, both in the past, and those who serve our clubs and classes now! Here is one adult who put up his money too...
...100-guinea silver trophy in the form of a model of a Cadet, was given by Mr Ritchie MacDonald, the club's Honorary Life Vice-President. An unusual clause in the deed of gift lays down that the trophy will be won permanently when the son of a previous winner is victorious.
See Cadet rules and tests at Point Yacht Club in South Africa 1962 and open the PDF linked below the summary (where it says "READ MORE HERE") and look at the right-hand column on page 51, and the first half of page 52, for the Cadet mentions. There is only one photo.
1964
The fancy trophy mentioned above is here awarded at the club's fifth annual Cadet Week. It warms my heart to hear of these 'Weeks' as I know what wonderful bonding and learning experiences they are for youth sailors. The original Burnham Week for Cadets in the UK grew into the National Championships, and Waldringfield SC will run their 69th Cadet Week this year, I believe.
I see from one of the photo captions that the winners get a traditional ducking; in my day it was birthdays when we threw someone in!
See Cadet Week in South Africa 1964 and open the PDF linked below the summary (where it says "READ MORE HERE") and look at pages 58-59 and the first part of page 69 for the Cadet mentions. There are five photos (note those in the top-right corner are actually from a Graduate class event mentioned elsewhere).
1965
The photos in this article give a little more of a clue as to the technology available in those days. I can see wooden masts and booms, but thankfully a metal tiller extension at least! The buoyancy aids are not bulky at all, which is great, but the sails are clearly distorted, pulling at their sliders in the spar grooves. That is not surprising, given the weather:
On the run that followed [Colin] Mills was the only skipper brave enough to set a spinnaker and it paid off handsomely. Clive Raymond had taken water so badly that on the next beat he was forced to head-to-wind and bail. This cost him two places...
It seems last-year's winner was not having any luck a few days later, but he fought back admirably:
Robert Bowden took part in this race with the big handicap of not having a spinnaker. He had not been able to find it before the race. ...he managed to keep his lead on the next run and was still leading at the leeward mark.
There was a qualifying series of eight races in flights, where each team would have sailed five times. After one discard, there was a final race for just the best ten teams.
See Cadet Week in South Africa 1965 and open the PDF linked below the summary (where it says "READ MORE HERE") and look at pages 61-62 for the Cadet mentions.
I hope you enjoyed this peep into the youth sailing of 60 years ago. We love bringing you the racing news from today and a smattering of history too.
Our thanks to sailing.co.za for permission to reproduce material.