Is the Cadet finished?

Er nothing can be too light, why? because you can always add corrector weights, stuff you take out when you're humping it about, I agree if it's so light it'll break, I guess beach life exacerbates the problem, I've just watched a weekend of Snipe Humping, I noticed they do at least crane that heavy chunk of metal out of the boat before they set about humping it around..

The Feva was already popular when the RYA picked up on it, not the other way round, as was the Topper, Laser and Mirror. The times when the RYA has made the 1st move, you get the 405, for example. The Cadet was a private venture, but not sure how soon it was picked up in that case.

So, who leads? The RYA, IASF, the builders? No, we do, the sailors.


Edited by Rupert - 08 Sep 14 at 12:28pm

Originally posted by Rupert The Feva was already popular when the RYA picked up on it, not the other way round, as was the Topper, Laser and Mirror. The times when the RYA has made the 1st move, you get the 405, for example. The Cadet was a private venture, but not sure how soon it was picked up in that case. So, who leads? The RYA, IASF, the builders? No, we do, the sailors.

As parents we know whats best eh?

I had exactly an incident this very weekend, day two of the snipes, we were using their go as our five so i was out there in the EPS scoping the start. Genna and Lorna were racing, the line had a Port Bias and the likelihood was that they'd line up on Starboard to get away, but, the tide was running right to left, so much so I'd rightly guessed that in the light wind if she'd gone last into the line up then back doored the committee boat end, she'd have lee bowed the tide all the way up anyone who'd gone left on starboard would likely have to free off by the time they tacked for the mark, exactly a situation where getting the lee bow right works.
So I quietly called her over, pointed it out to her, did she pay any attention? No, there were two boys down the other end clearly more interesting as they'd obviously more enjoyed dicking around match racing each other down the back of the fleet, other than joshing with her I haven't laboured the point, she was having fun, they had their own thing going on.

The moral of the tale? Don't make winning a condition of racing, it isn't always essential for kids they have other things going on. The number of times over the years I've seen parents yelling at kids for not doing this or that, bad news, kids get upset, parents get upset, not at all what this should be about. If the 'friends' are part of the enjoyment then so be it, clearly there had been some sort of youth event that Genna had won earlier because she got something for it at the prize giving and the grown ups race was a chance to just have fun and dick about, it doesn't matter, they are there, that's what matters.



Edited by iGRF - 08 Sep 14 at 1:28pm

Originally posted by Assassin ...the graph kind of proves my point, those Cadet numbers are not very good....

Actually I thought the graph was indicating good health in all those classes; nowhere near dropping out of '50+ club' that indicates a successful adult class. And I don't think the trends have been going on long enough to call them a trend yet. Obviously the Cadet and Mirror numbers have to suffer a bit as the Feva expands, as there's probably (roughly) the same number of kids sailing in the UK overall.

Thinking back to my days in the Cadet has made me realise one important point: I wouldn't have wanted to go sailing if I was scared, or felt I couldn't control the boat. Giving me a faster/twitchier boat would have put me off.

I know some kids are gung-ho and brave, but there's plenty of wimps out there too, probably accounting for 75% or more of the fleet. A 54kg Cadet which doesn't wobble like crazy, and steers solidly, is a good option to keep the kids smiling (and not retiring) in a greater range of wind strengths.