Cadet National Championship brings back emotional memories of family achievements
by Magnus Smith 30 Jul 2024 16:18 BST
Less than half the fleet fit into this shot - ABP Cadet UK Nationals in Plymouth day 1 © Paul Gibbins Photography
"We took a Cadet out into the middle of the river, and tried to see how many people could fit on before it sunk."
It seems the Waldringfield SC kids knew how to fill a hot, sunny windless day back in the late 1950s! This was the reminiscence of one ex-Cadet sailor watching 100+ teams out on Plymouth Sound for the UK National Championships almost 67 years after she was last in the class.
Apparently the boat did not sink. I enquired how many kids it had supported in the end, but just got the reply, "I was too hysterical with laughter to remember the number!"
I'm here myself as an ex-Cadet, too. Under pretence of working for YachtsandYachting.com I am wallowing in nostalgia for the class which gave me such wonderful teenage years. I'm loving watching the class flourish with such high attendance at the event, and I am collecting stories from everyone I meet.
My companion for the morning recalls her own boat, number 1139 'Hectic', with great fondness. She had started sailing in 1957 at Waldringfield, back in the days of cotton sails and no launching trolleys.
Her father, Ted Sudell, was responsible for sending the Cadet international. He got involved in the UK committee after the Worlds were in Canada, and was responsible for contacting and building up embryonic fleets in Europe and Australia. He put in an awful lot of work, but it came to fruition with the class flourishing in many more locations worldwide.
Ted spent over 30 years building up fleets and organising World Championships. He was International Chairman for ten years, and then his son William handled the role for six years.
Ted sadly passed away in 2003, but his daughter recalls with pride how she visited the Worlds in Lake Balaton, Hungary in 2006 with her mother and brother (also an ex-Cadet on the committee). During the opening ceremony, and a member of the organisers gestured to the flags of many nations flying, and the packed crowd of kids, and he said, "all this is what your husband made possible." Enough to move any member of the family to tears.
Ted had been taught to sail by his wife, his sons and daughters were Cadets, and now his grandchildren too. What a wonderful family legacy.
I am hearing again and again just how much the Cadet class mean to the kids, both now and decades later. I think we can all recognise how beautiful it is that our youth sailors are competing on friendly terms with other nations, experiencing different cultures and making friends there.
"I made friends for life, and still see them now," was the parting comment I got. What more could you ask for?