Cadet World Championship at Bodstedt, Germany - Day 1
by Neil Collingridge 29 Jul 2018 21:10 BST
29 July - 3 August 2018
The Cadet Worlds at Bodstedt, Germany start © Neil Collingridge
- 63 boats in the World Fleet
- 57 boats in the Promotional Fleet
After four days training in the heat of Bodstedt, Germany, the GBR Cadet team sponsored by Zhik were all set to go.
Saturday's practice race for the World and Promo fleets came and went. Difficult to draw too many conclusions from these - when no one cares about being over the start line including the race officer its debatable how much value the race really has. For the record there were plenty of Argentinians and Aussies in the chocolates of the World fleet but we'd have anticipated that anyway... and as usual the top of the Promo fleet was packed out with Brits. Move on...
That was followed by the opening ceremony - Team GBR looking great in their kit (thanks to Suze Watling and Andy and Jackie Bush) and surely still with the biggest flag. I'm a bit short on details as I was still battling the only storm of the whole British summer to find a plane that could actually get me to the continent but it looks like some Pirates were involved coming ashore in a boat that bore a striking resemblance to the Black Pig (end of dodgy Captain Pugwash metaphors). That same British weather seemed to have caught the jet stream to join the Baltic and so masts down overnight to make sure the boats stayed safe.
And on to Sunday and the real business commenced. 10 knots on the course but a forecast to drop to next to nothing as the day goes on. The World team are off first - hardly surprising there's a general recall as the sailors are all (over) keen to get going. Then for the second start the pin is very congested but they get away cleanly and at the first mark GBR is looking OK - Angus Collingridge and Ed Fletcher round fifth behind two Argies and two Belgians. Charlotte Videlo and Tom Shepherd are sixth with Faye Chatterton and Oscar Bush 9th and Lia Fletcher and Mish Collingridge around 15th. After a long wait for them to do the outer loop, at the second windward its Arg 9723 with a big lead followed by Angus and Ed who have worked their way up the left side. Another run and the short beat to the finish and Angus and Ed drop a place on the line to another Argentinian boat as they fail to cover.
In the promos, which we are finding harder to follow as they do the inner loop, a Polish boat takes the win with Phoebe Bradshaw and Mimi Slump second and Cally Terkelsen and Hettie Thorogood third.
Race 2 and the wind is dying fast. The worlds fleet see the AP go up in the last minute - a relief for many as the uniform flag is flying and then at the second attempt, this time under a black flag, they are off. Again there's a scrum at the pin and clearly boats over - as it happens both Angus and Charlotte pick up a black flag but this time the Aussies have their skates on and round in the lead with a Dutch boat second and Connor Line and Toby Bush in third. By the finish, shortened at the top of the second beat, these two have worked their way up to second place behind the Aussies but after that there are no GBR boats in the top 30 boats so some work to do in terms of sailing in the very very light stuff.
Back to the promo fleet and its a much better GBR result - the same Pole wins race 2 after the race is shortened half way down the outer loop but after him Rosie Targett and Sofia Sfaxi are second, Phoebe and Mimi are third with Toby Slump and Will Shepherd fourth.
To everyone's relief there's no race 3 as the wind is really switching off completely. It's early days and clear that consistency will be important in these ever so shifty conditions. The heat returns tomorrow just as its forecast to do in the UK and the wind forecast isn't looking particularly great for the rest of the week.
We will be back for more tomorrow regardless.
Results can be found at: