Cadet World Championship at Bodstedt, Germany - Overall
by Neil Collingridge 4 Aug 2018 10:44 BST
29 July - 3 August 2018
2018 International Cadet World Championships final day © Cadet Worlds 2018
The lay-day came and went and so did the wind. Thursday saw no races completed so onto Friday and an obligatory shut-off at 14.55 with only seven races completed for the Promo fleet and eight for the World fleet.
The sun was out, the wind was nowhere but the forecast had a shift to the north around 3pm, so sure enough the 120 odd cadets launched after a lengthy delay into a fickle northwester with everything crossed for wind to arrive so the event could finish with a positive. The GBR team - Worlds and Promos and all their parents bid Tom Mallendine goodbye as Cadet RYA Coach after 5 years with a buoyancy aid gift for team mascot Ralph, his son.
So first to Teo and Ana Zecchin from Argentina. This time last year I blogged the following:
"Teo (still 2nd) looked to have things wrapped up [for the 2017 World Championship]. Then at the gate another Argentinian boat ahead of Eryk [the Pole] decided to have a big luffing match with Bee Harris allowing the Pole through and past to leeward so that suddenly one more boat to pass and he was just 3 places behind Teo. Did the Argentinians not like each other we were asking? Eryk got that 1 more place up the final half beat to the finish to end equal points with Teo after 12 races but with an extra race win [the Worlds] on countback."
A year has passed and with no way of getting more than 1 race in it was clear that absent a DNE (It has been known to happen - And don't we know it) they would win the Worlds. They have clearly been the form boat this year revelling in light and gribbly conditions that many of Team GBR struggled with - when you sail on the River Plate delta all year I guess most other places feel easy to deal with. At last we saw a big smile from Teo which by all accounts continued into the small hours as he and his sister took what had been snatched away at the death a year ago. If at first you don't succeed...
Back to Team GBR in the Worlds. Charlotte and Tom started the day in 4th overall but took yet another consistent place with a 5th to profit from Thibaud from Belgium having a day he'd rather forget. Charlotte takes the coveted First Girl Trophy and Third overall for the championship. A great result at this level.
Angus and Ed had a topsy turvy race: well placed at the pin, poorly placed at the windward, taking 20 odd boats down the run by doing the buffalo girl thing (except their's was a straight line track to everyone else's bananas) only to then bang a corner (why oh why?) and lose 15 places again. No matter - they finished 8th overall for the Championship showing glimpses of what they can do but ultimately lacking the consistency so important in a big regatta like this.
Rounding out the Top 10 were Connor and Toby - their 15th in the last race was just enough to push them back up into 10th overall just a handful of points adrift of Angus.
Faye and Oscar, Hazel and Gwen, Lia and Mish (Most improved trophy), Eli and George all had their moments. It may not feel like it immediately but all will have learnt bucketloads from the experience and all will I know have many better, happier days to come. This was a tough event at a standard we rarely get in the UK so they should take the positives and keep plugging away.
Over to the Promo fleet where alas only 7 races had been sailed. As it often is, the points were extremely tight at the top. Phoebe and Mimi one point ahead of Katie and Dom who had been on a charge from day 2 onwards....and the Pole lurking in third ready to jump on any mistake. Time was running short on the cutoff but the PRO got them away at the first time of asking (I think). Once again Katie and Dom led at the top but Phoebe and Mimi chased all the way, never giving up, trying so hard to keep the pressure on. Coming into the last leeward with the mini beat to come Katie had a lead of 50m which would give her the Promo championship on countback but there were celebrating world team boats all over the place with RIBs trying to clear them out the way. Anything was still possible. Just in time we ushered the last Czech boat off the course and Katie and Dom managed to round cleanly, hold speed and nerves and make the finish with just one tack well executed in the chopped up wind and waves - horrible but they had done it - equal points with Phoebe and Mimi but with oh so many race wins to use for the countback.
As we've seen so often in the past GBR flooded the Promo results - seven of the top ten.
So a big prizegiving followed after some rather hot packing up of boats and RIBs and then the sailors traditional end of regatta party which appears to have gone on late into the night (morning) with the older GBR sailors doing their bit for EU (and Argentinian) international relations....or so I'm told.
Next year its Poland - somewhat puzzlingly once again on a pond that's within a cadet three sailed reach of the beautiful Baltic. Let's hope for a bit more breeze, a bit less heat and more GBR Cadet success. A big thankyou to the organisers from the ICC and German Cadet class and of course Big Alex who made it all happen in his inimitable style.
Overall Results: