BRITISH CADET NATIONALS & WORLDS OVERVIEW - 21st September 2007
Odyssey 9528 On the 28th of July my crew (Jarad Cavanagh) and I (Joel Aulich) participated in the British national championship.
In this regatta there were a total of 153 boats. There were four different groups red, blue, pink and green, because there where so many boats we raced in flights. Each day the flight arrangement changed so we raced a different colour every day. On the last day we changed our flight group for each race.
Jarad and I were in blue team and in this group we had fellow Australian team boats Skeeta (Geelong) and Capricious (Tasmania). In this regatta we finished with 15th place overall. We had a great time during this regatta on and off the water. The yacht club had organised off the water activities, these included a beach night with sand castle competitions and a barbeque. Then on another night they had organised a kite flying competition.
After the British nationals no time to rest the Australian team measurement was just the next day. Some countries as Argentina and Hungary even measured that day in hindsight good for them needing all this time to modify boats. For the measurement we went in as one team and each country at a time. The measurement was long and tiring. I don’t think that the measurers thought it would take this long.
In the Australian team we only had minor items under scrutiny. Three team boats had to remove rope handles from there centre boards whilst two of us had to move up our rudder stocks because the rudders sat too deep in the water, one team member had to lengthen his rubbing strips on chines 20mm.
This took time but compared to some of the adjustments the Argentinean team made this was minor. They had to make their boats wider and lengthen the rubbing strips for each boat. There boats were made wider by adding little speed humps to the measurement point, similar to late model 14 ft skiffs. Temporary measurement was granted for this regatta only. Even though they had to modify their boats they still sailed well. 1st and 2nd overall.
World championships, these were at first quite daunting but by the end of the regatta it was the same as any other yacht race. We soon got used to someone calling starboard in another language, which was their excuse for not understanding although all competitors were very experienced which also made it a lot harder.
The practice race was actually cancelled. So was the first day of racing, due to the fact that it was twenty knots gusting 25 with seas one and a half metres. The main reason was because the race committee’s anchor was too small for the sea state, so much for using cruising yachts as committee vessels.
The day that the practice race should have been held was the opening ceremony this was not as great as I had expected. We walked from a car park into a large wedding marquee, and then all of the competitors were squished like sardines and sat down on the ground. The only reason I think it was in the marquee was because it had rained earlier that day.
The racing was fair in the light air, the only bad thing was that the race officer was quick to pull out the black flag. There was not one “I” flag for the whole regatta but the majority of the starts were off black flags. This I think made people a lot more cautious, and for the ones that started right on the line huge gains were to be made.
The first day was personally my best we had mixed results, the first race we came 38th, then 5th and a 19th. With events not going our way our results started to drop back.
We finished 40th. Many things we learnt we could do better, work on our weaknesses before our next major regatta, Nationals at Christmas in Geelong.
The social activities for the worlds were just as great as the nationals. On the first night we had the opening ceremony which was fun.
The sailor’s forum or class development meeting was not the most enjoyable night; I was one of two sailors there. At the meeting we talked about some amendments that should be made to the class rules. There was even discussion of the prospect of cadets with mylar sails; this is due to the high insurance claims that occur in the UK.
The next social event that was to be held was the night with the Welsh band & dancers. They taught everyone how to dance and showed us the traditional Welsh dress and also their music. I am not really a fan of Welsh music but it was a good night anyway.
Jarad and I would just like to say thanks again to Sandringham Yacht Club and the members for there generosity and support through our first World Championship. Hopefully it’s not the last.
Joel Aulich
Skipper
ODYSSEY 9528
