Cadets take on the Baltic
The secluded lagoons of former East Germany provide the pefect backdrop for the 2018 Cadet World Championship, says Julia Jones
The Pomeranian Bodden are a series of lagoons along the south-western shore of the Baltic. They’re reed-fringed and secluded, part of a National Park, popular with anglers and a vital resting place for migratory birds, such as geese and cranes.
The four most westerly bodden lie behind the Fischland-darss-zingst peninsula – a 28-mile stretch of low cliffs, long beaches, dunes, holiday homes and naturism.
From the seaward side (on passage perhaps from Warnemünde/rostock to the island of Rügen or onwards to Poland) – the Darsser Ort lighthouse is a distinctive landmark, with no hint of the significant bodies of water immediately inland. It’s a little like sailing up the English coast between Great Yarmouth and Cromer, with the Norfolk Broads tantalisingly unseen.
The two most westerly bodden (Saaler and Bodstedter) are shallow: usually only 2-3m, with useful buoyed channels leading to tiny village marinas offering a dozen or so box moorings and cycle hire easily available. Or there’s the Barther bodden with better facilities and tales to tell of the Second World War POW camp, Stalag Luft 1.
This is former East Germany where arrested economic development meant that the area’s traditional fishing vessels, the Zeesenboote, were still working into the 1970s. Now they are lovingly preserved and compete in picturesque local regattas. Just the sort of area I should have been exploring with the grandchildren on board Peter Duck, you might think. Except that the grandchildren in question were in Bodstedt to take part in the 2018 Cadet World Championship, and the Cadet dinghy has no space for adults. Cadets are 10ft 6in long with 4ft 6in beam, but their broad side decks make a very small central well; neat for the 7- to 17-year-olds for whom they are designed, not so appealing to anyone
bulkier. The dinghy was commissioned by Yachting World in 1947 from legendary boat-builder Jack Holt. It was a rapid success and soon went international.
As many as 242 competitors from 11 nations came to Bodstedt this summer from as far as Argentina, Australia and the Ukraine. Great Britain’s Charlotte Videlo and Tom Shepherd from Frensham Pond Sailing Club took World bronze, but in the ‘Promo’ fleet (the competition for those who just missed national selection) British boats took seven of the first 10 places. The competitors and most of their families were there for two weeks, many of them picking up friendships made in previous summers. But on the day my partner and I arrived there was a tense atmosphere. This was Measurement Day.
Because Cadets are a One Design class, every detail must be scrupulously fair and within the agreed parameters. The craft are over 70 years old, so available materials and construction techniques have moved on. I was grateful to 14-yearold Ethan, from Waldringfield in Suffolk, for explaining the pros and cons of the three different versions of the GRP (foam-sandwich) moulds and then sharing his meditations on whether the extra 2cm on the forestay of dinghies might give them a competitive advantage.
Hazel, another 14-year-old, for whom my older granddaughter, Gwen, was crewing, weathered something of a crisis when her mast was discovered to be bent. Hazel’s a perfectionist and needed any replacement mast to be exactly as she and Gwen were used to. Help from the German hosts secured a suitable replacement overnight and next morning I watched as she marked it up precisely so Gwen would know what to do. I write adventure stories about competent, independent young teenagers – here I was seeing them in action. Elsewhere in the camp a long-running controversy was getting its annual airing as the headsails of two of the most modern cadets were called back for re-measurement due to their slightly fuller cut. These were both on British boats and my heart sank as I anticipated the nit-picking and protesting that, for me, constitutes the unattractive side of racing. I mentioned this to one of the most experienced mothers in the team. ‘I really don’t think it matters too much,’ she said. ‘At this stage of the competition it’s all up to the decisions that the children make out there.’
That was the essence of this event. Parents could hover helpfully on RIBS ready with snacks, and the coaches could hold briefings, but at the heart of the action were 121 individual units of one older and one younger child, dependent on each other.
Not all were harmonious or heroic: occasional helms were heard to snap at their crews, some crews might have fumbled or been slow. I heard of one member who was simply unable to stay awake through a long afternoon’s training session. Nevertheless the training that Hazel (14) and Sorcerer were giving Gwen (10) in the World fleet and Cally (nearly 15) with Master Mariner to my other granddaughter Hetty (9) in the Promos, was unique and adult-free. When I heard Hetty say, ‘Cally’s really good!’ I could hear her determination to be equally good one day.
I came away reassured, not just about the verisimilitude of my writing, but about the future of sailing. Perhaps when these young people have grown out of their Cadets and into yachts there’ll be an occasional space on board for an itinerant granny.