National champs
Skye Watson-Campbell teams with Kale Chase to win regatta
Prince Edward Island’s only cadet participating in the National Sea Cadet Sail Regatta recently in Kingston, Ont., was part of the winning team.
Cadet Skye Watson-Campbell, 18, of Royal Canadian Sea Cadet Corps 23 Kent in Charlottetown, sailed to victory after four days of racing in the annual competition. Along with her skip, cadet Kale Chase, 15, of Royal Canadian Sea Cadet Corps 339 Iroquois in Dartmouth, N.S., the pair garnered a score of 22, winning the first six races and eight of the 11 overall races.
This was the second time Watson-Campbell has participated in the national regatta, finishing ninth with another skip last year. She and Chase won the Atlantic Cup Regatta in May, earning them a berth in the national competition.
The top 50 sea cadet sailors from across the country competed in the national regatta, sailing 420 dinghies. Each team consists of a skipper and crew. Ten coaches accompany the sea cadets, along with around 25 support staff and volunteers who work throughout the weeklong competition.
Watson-Campbell attended HMCS Acadia Cadet Training Centre in Cornwallis, N.S., this summer as a sail instructor, teaching younger cadets the basics of sailing. In June, she was selected to sail on the Royal Canadian Navy’s sailing ship HMCS Oriole during the vessel’s deployment to the Great Lakes.
She sailed from England to France last summer while training onboard the TS Royalist, the tall ship of the United Kingdom’s sea cadet program.
She has been a member of 23 Kent Sea Cadet Corps for six years and has achieved the highest rank of cadet chief petty officer first class. She is attending the Canadian Coast Guard College this fall in Cape Breton, N.S.