What a wonderful Cadet Regatta!
Arriving with smiles, and leaving with bigger smiles, we had 18 three to ten-year-olds tackling three full-on days of messing about in boats. Parents delved in with their chosen fields of expertise, whether it was nautically-themed crafting and teaching onshore, setting up boats or coaching in canoes: fun for everyone!
Some of the kids were completely new to sailing, others had some pond experience, but every single one made the most of the spectacular weather, with 2 full days on the pond, including 1-to-1 coaching, paddle races, capsize drills and paddleboarding.
Sunday started with a fantastic crabbing competition on the pontoon, with over 200 crabs, 5 fish and 2 jellyfish caught! This was followed by packed lunch on the river in various members’ boats (a very big thank you to those who volunteered their boats), leading into the annual and all-important Commodore’s Sail Pass. The Commodore looked incredibly smart in his reefer jacket, with the Lady Commodore hurling, sorry, distributing, sweets to the passing boats, with impressive accuracy! Three Mirrors joined in, with 2 crew in each one, with an average age of 5 (and slightly older helms!).
After lunch the Cadets were joined by some older Cadets for an enormous amount of fun on the pontoon. There was a lot of swimming and ‘bombing’, mirror sailing and rib rides. It was great to see our fabulous new pontoon with its versa dock launching facilities being put to its intended use so successfully. The Cadets have been extremely fortunate, as the Commodore has increased the mirror dinghy fleet, so we now have 2 club Mirrors for all to make use of. The Cadets had a competition to name the new boat and the winning name was ‘LOLLIPOP’, chosen by Eliza Cowell.
The evenings were a mix of bouncy castles, the dance studio, great food, copious amounts of rosé (for the adults) and a BBQ prepared by Dan Hull for both Cadets and adults on the Sunday, which was simply delicious and the partying continued until 11.30pm – way past bedtime!
It was a successful and very memorable 3 days. It was absolutely lovely to see the Club’s facilities all being used and enjoyed. We hope all the visitors’ and members’ families had a great time, and we are looking forward to seeing all our budding Cadets on the water again very soon.
Well done and thank you to all those who made it such a success! Here’s to a fantastic 2023 Cadet Regatta.