King of the Cadet class
ROYAL Yacht Club of Tasmania sailing manager Nick Hutton has been involved in some way with the International Cadet class since he was young, sailing as crew at Montrose Bay Yacht Club back in the 1960s.
This week he returned from Bodstedt, Germany, after overseeing yet another successful world championship for Cadets, attracting more than 120 young sailors from 13 nations.
Among them were seven crews from Australia — including four from Sandy Bay Sailing Club where Hutton developed his renowned skills as a race officer (now an IRO, international race officer) and administrator, including five years as club commodore.
His role over many decades has been recognised with life membership of both the SBSC and the Cadet class association.
His latest key role at Bodstedt was as the International Cadet Association’s technical director, chairman of its events committee, vice-president of the world body, and the International Cadet class association senior representative at the worlds.
Hutton has been race officer at the 2012-13 worlds and principal race officer at the 2015 worlds as well as Australian team manager “seven or eight times”.
“I started sailing as crew for Philip Burton in Darta (sail number 2880) back in the 1960s at Montrose Bay and as an adult became involved at Sandy Bay Sailing Club when my daughter Louise and son Patrick began sailing Cadets,” Hutton saidthis week. “They sailed in 11 International Cadet Worlds and each won an Australian title.”
He said light winds had curtailed this year’s championship to nine races.
“Our aim was to get in as many good races we could… which we did,” he said.
“The Australian team did very well in the light winds, against European and South American sailors who race regularly in light breezes.
“Over the years our Australian, and in particular, Tasmanian Cadet sailors have won the worlds many times and this year we had four Australian crews in the top 20 of the 63-boat fleet, three of them from Sandy Bay Sailing Club.
Hutton said the 2019 International Cadet worlds would be held in Poland and in late 2020 on Melbourne’s Port Phillip, hosted by the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria.
“The 2019 Australian championships will be hosted at Sandy Bay Sailing Club from December 27 to January 3,” he said.
The top-placed Australian crew at Bodstedt was Peter Allen and Ashton Rawstron from the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria who finished fifth, with Sandy Bay’s Archer Ibbott and James Gough sixth.
Team captain Jacob McConaghy and Sam Hooper, also from Sandy Bay, placed 13th after a third in the final race. Youngest skipper Hugo Allison and his crew Grace Hooper were 20th overall. Jack Allison and Luca Groves finished 31st.