Cadet Blog

Cambs Youth League at Ely Sailing Club

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 14:51:32 +0100

Thirty one boats took part in the 2nd round of the Cambs Youth League at Ely SC. We had fine sunny weather with light and variable south westerly winds.

Representing the Ely Youth Team were:-
Nick Copsey and Jamie Cammann National 12
Scott Bilham Laser
Rupert Molyneux(U15) Laser
Molly Wells and Katie Witty Enterprise
Jack Knight(U15) Topper
Jack Cammann(U15) Topper

The short beat from the committee boat, near buoy No3, to No6 and then onto No7 proved challenging in the fluky conditions. In the first race Jonny Leeding from Hunts SC, sailing a Laser, capitalised on a fantastic start to take an unassailable lead and first place, followed someway off by Nick Copsey and Jamie Cammann in the 12. Scott Bilham came home third. The second race saw Nick take line honours, closely followed by Scott, who constantly worked his boat hard to catch the shifts in the wind. The final race was a comprehensive victory again for Nick and Jamie, which enabled them to take first place overall on the day. Scott taking 3rd overall.

Rory Williams from Cam SC had an excellent day, coming home first Topper in each race and first Topper overall, whilst Jack Cammann finished as second Topper overall and Jack Knight 5th. Rupert Molyneux on his first ever experience of racing a laser, finished the day a commendable 10th overall and 2nd ‘U15’.

It was particularly heartening to see eight ‘U12’ cadets racing on Saturday. A special mention has to go to Thomas Proctor from Cam SC, who finished the day a brilliant 4th overall in his Oppie, to Oskar Tonkinson from Hunts SC, the youngest competitor at 8yrs old, who finished a creditable 11th and also to brave Jake Clark from Hunts SC, who having just passed the line at the end of the race, had to complete the lonely last lap on his own in a dying wind.

A big ‘THANKYOU’ goes to all the competitors who took part, to all the parents for your support, to all the Ely crew, on the water and in the galley, for continuing to make the Youth League so successful in helping cadets gain the skills and confidence to further their sailing careers!

Club Points after 2nd round at Ely (first 3 boats to count at each event)

Hunts SC 20
Ely SC 36
Cam SC 49
Paxton SC 90

Ely Youth League Results 3rdJuly 2010.pdf

Sat, 29 May 2010 00:00:00 +0100

NSSA 2010 Championships Oxford Sailing Club (Farmoor Reservoir) 29/05/2010 - 30/05/2010

On a cold, windy and very damp morning, nearly 70 boats from across the country descended on Farmoor Reservoir for this years championships. Jack Knight, Jack and Jamie Cammann, from Ely SC all sailing Toppers, went along to compete within the CSYSA Team. The fleet was divided into Lasers, Toppers, Handicap and Rookies. There were seven races in all with one discard, 4 on Saturday and 3 on Sunday.

On Saturday the wind (15knts, with 22knt gusts) was shifting all over the place, starting from the south, then from the west and then from the south west, bringing with it sharp squalls and rain. It all provided interesting and excellent racing conditions. There were two ‘back to back’ races before and after lunch. A tired fleet came ashore at the end of the day to enjoy an ‘As much as you can eat barbecue’! The CSYSA Team returned to the campsite and sat around a campfire, and fortunately chose not to start singing campfire songs!

Sunday, whilst staying dry, brought stronger winds which increased throughout the day, north westerly force four to five with gusts above 30 knots at times (waves topped with white horses!) This all made the long beat exhausting and the reaches exhilarating! And there were many boats not always the right way up!

The Ely squad all fought hard having some fantastic races taking on some of the best sailors in the country, and showed no signs of giving in to the awesomely exhausting conditions. In total 22 Toppers were in the fleet, Jack Knight took a second in the first race and finished a veritable 5th overall, Jack Cammann came home 9th and Jamie Cammann took 11th. Well done boys!!

Cambridgeshire (CSYSA) V Norfolk (NSSA) Filby Broad Norfolk

Sat, 22 May 2010 00:00:00 +0100

On a bright sunny morning with a light north easterly wind, Cambridgeshire took on Norfolk for the fist time in this new event. 17 crews from CSYSA travelled to Filby Broad near Gt Yarmouth to make up a total fleet of 39 boats.

Representing Ely SC as part of the CSYSA were:-

Nick Copsey and Scott Bilham (National 12, 3411)
Tim Lupton (Laser, 185731)
Jamie Cammann (Topper, 18)
Jack Cammann (Topper, 120)
Jack Knight (Topper, 42442)

In the light fluky wind maintaining boat speed and concentration was definitely the order of the day which played into the hands of Nick and Scott as they won all three races convincingly in class and in fleet. Tim Lupton also displayed great skill and calmly took first place in each race in the Laser fleet and 2nd overall. To consolidate a great result for the Ely SC Youth Team within the CSYSA, the Toppers of Jamie, Jack and Jack Knight, took 2nd, 3rd and 4th respectively. All results contributing to a well deserved victory for Cambridgeshire.

Youth League at Cam Sailing Club

Sat, 24 Apr 2010 00:00:00 +0100

The first ‘youth league’ event of the year took place last Saturday hosted by the Cam Sailing Club. It was a beautiful, sunny spring day with light south easterly winds. Ely S.C. was represented by Jack Knight, Jack and Jamie Cammann in Toppers, and Nick Copsey crewed by Luke Lazell in a National 12.

Nick Copsey relished the conditions, enjoying his boats superb pointing ability on the river bends and took an early lead in the first race coming home first by a generous margin. Having succumbed to the temptations of a delicious bacon buttie, the Topper helms were completely oblivious to the fact that their race had already started and crossed the start line some four minutes late.

Fighting back hard to regain lost time Jack Knight sailed a fantastic race to finish the first race as first Topper and 14th in the fleet. Jack improved his placings throughout the day and finished the last race with a commendable 1st place on handicap.

The Ely S.C. team continued to do well on the water, resulting in
Nick and Luke taking 3rd place overall.
Jack knight achieved 1st place in the U15’s, 6th place overall and 1st in the Topper fleet.
Jack Cammann finished 13th overall and 2nd in the Topper fleet.

So, congratulations and well done to all the Ely S.C. Youth Team, indeed congratulations and well done to all the competitors for a great day’s racing.

Team points after Cam
Hunts 7
Ely 22
Cam 24
Paxton 40

Welcome back

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 16:27:23 +0000

A warm welcome to all new cadets joining the club, and also a warm welcome back to all those rejoining the club for 2010.

As some of you know there has been lots of work done over the winter in preparation for the coming sailing season. Not only has there been a lot of maintenance on the club house and facilities including the club boats, but also on the racing and training program for the year.
Last year Andy, Hannah and fellow instructors did a fantastic job in providing a series of coaching sessions for the cadets, which, whilst being great fun, led to a huge improvement in their skills and sailing knowledge. The training included topics such as boat handling skills, gybing, roll tacking, rounding the mark, racing starts, racing rules, flags and much more. To start this season off and get you on the water after winter, there are coaching sessions on the 15th, 16th and 17th of April. This would be particularly useful if you would like to race at the Youth League event at Cam on the 24th April.
Please visit the “training” page on this website for more coaching dates and the application form which you will need to return.

The Cambridgeshire Youth League is an exciting opportunity to experience competition against other cadets of all abilities within the Cambridgeshire sailing clubs. All cadets of any age and level are welcome to come along, either in their own boats or with a club boat. We need to have at least four boats attending each meeting on a regular basis, but would encourage as many as possible to take part and help to build a strong Ely Sailing Club Cadet Team. So please come along and enjoy a lot of fun in safe and friendly environments. Use of Ely Club boats, and transport to away events can be arranged if required.

The Youth League dates this year are:

Sat 24th April at Cam (Waterbeach)

Sat 3rd July at Ely

Sat 11th Sept at Hunts (St Ives)

Sat 9th Oct at Paxton Lakes (near St Neots)

The Cambridgeshire Schools and Youth Sailing Association (CSYSA) and the National Sailing Schools Association (NSSA) have announced their events calendar for 2010, visit their websites for
for dates and information. Some dates of interest are as follows:

16th -18th April NSSA Keel Boat Match Racing at Queen Mary Sailing Club West London
 29th and 30th May, NSSA Championships at Oxford (Rookie Fleet for those who are new to racing, parents are able to stay on the campsite if they wish.) 
26th and 27th June, Cambridgeshire Team training weekend at Rutland* (suitable for all levels, only requirement is the ability to sail a simple course, parents are able to stay on the campsite if they wish.)
18th to 23rd July, NSSA Regatta at Datchet
2nd and 3rd October, Topper Team Racing at Upton Warren
www.csysa.org.uk www.nssa.org.uk .

Visit The International Topper Class Association for details of their training and racing events
 www.gbrtopper.co.uk

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Have a good sailing season!!