Gunfleet 2019 Cadet Week - Five Days Of Fantastic Fun

Gunfleet Sailing Club’s 2019 Cadet Week, sponsored by ORSTED, proved to be an exciting and fun-filled time for the younger members of the Club.  Each morning the sailors took part in a race series whilst after lunch they joined together in teams to take part in games, both on and off the water.  Tuesday and Wednesday were slightly disrupted by strong winds, but the programme was adjusted accordingly, ensuring a busy and fast moving range of activities throughout all five days. 

The racing proved particularly exciting with very tight starts, and some well planned and executed manoeuvres, resulting in close sailing and positions regularly changing.  In the Topper fleet there was a different helm taking fourth place each time, including Callum Lawrence, Taylor Wright and young George Smith, and whilst there were a number of capsizes it was rare for there to be a retirement.  The Topaz fleet saw consistent sailing but positions did vary at times with brother and sister Ben and Sophie Bennett just missed out on third place overall.  On the other hand the 405 of Ed Philpot and Henry Spooner showed top placing throughout the week.  Racing varied from a small course, with several laps, to a much larger course that took over two hours to complete.

The afternoon team games were very much water-based with, amongst others, the water balloon race, triathlon, sea and land treasure hunt, watery wordsearch, numbers up, and swimming race.  One of the very popular events was the all aboard race where a solo sailor takes the boat round a small course before picking-up a team mate, sailing the course again, before picking-up another team member etc., until in the end the whole team are on board and the boat becomes more difficult to handle.  As always, the games concluded with a tug of war, egg throwing, and water jousting, proving to be the end of a perfect week.

Swallow Trophy – Toppers: 
1.    Harrison Smith
2.    Alfie Searles
3.    Lauren Hooper

Amazon Trophy – Topaz:  
1.    Owen Hooper & Francesca Cottee
2.    Jude Aylen & Freddy Spooner
3.    Jake & Emily Palmer

Captain Flint Trophy – 405:
1.    Ed Philpot & Henry Spooner

Overall All-in Handicap Race:
1.    Topper – Harrison Smith
2.    Topper – Alfie Searles
3.    Topaz – Owen Hooper & Francesca Cottee

ORSTED Trophy for 2019 winning Cadet Week Team – “Gunfleet Galleons” – Lauren Hooper, Alfie Searles, Ed Philpot, Henry Spooner, Jess Searles, Taylor Wright, Poppy Swinbourne and Brooke Sayer

Read more about the Club's Cadet Week under the Cadets/Otters section of our website