Cadets – Thames Estuary Yacht Club

There is a very active group of cadets who vary in age and sailing ability. The cadets have their own programme with events on and off the water. With cadet nights at the clubhouse once a month and sailing throughout the year. There are also two Cadet Regatta weekends, one at the beginning of May and the other the end of August. These weekends are dedicated to teaching the cadets how to sail and improve their skills. The cadets are also encouraged to take part in the racing events.

We meet the first Friday of the month from 6.30 till 8 if the tide is in and the weather permits we will be on the water. The club has their own toppers, topaz and optimist so you don’t have to have a boat to join. Everyone is welcome regardless of ability.

Here’s a taster of what our cadets were doing in 2018

Half way through the year and our cadets and their families have had some great times on and off of the water.

The early part of the season saw some shore-based training and an evening spent at laser tag. Once the weather was a bit more favourable we took to the water over the Easter weekend having great fun zapping about on darts and familiarising ourselves once again with the support boats with both cadets and parents having a go. Fun was had hunting the jetty for Easter eggs which we are still finding.

Not to miss out the K9 members of our families we took to the beach with an agility afternoon followed by a movie night, Swallows and Amazon’s, to get us geared up for our forth coming adventure sails, and of course we had lashings of popcorn.

Our next event was our first adventure sail to Leigh where we all boarded various boats and with a favourable wind sailed to leigh where we all had fish and chips before returning.

May’s cadet night was spent canoeing, learning to row and of course all ending up in the water swimming and generally mucking about.

Our second adventure on the water took us to Benfleet Yacht Club. We set sail with very little wind and those who didn’t sail transporting our camping kit by road. We were met by Benfleet cadets and after lunch and pitching tents we explored Benfleet Yacht Clubs vast area and then we all had a game of rounders. Unfortunately, the fine weather didn’t remain fine and the evening saw torrential rain that saw us retreating inside with our BBQ for shelter and finding an alternative to toasted marshmallows over the campfire. The heavy rain showed up several leaky tents so the night was spent in the downstairs bar which pleased the cadets as they all got to sleep together, not such a peaceful night for the parents and a very early morning as they were all raring to go at 5 in the morning. After breakfast those who sailed thanked Benfleet for a great time and set sail with a favourable wind home.

The first of this year’s cadet regattas was over the Whitsun bank holiday where the weather was extremely kind to us. There was plenty of opportunity for the cadets to get out sailing with six cadets achieving the TEYC bronze sailing award and one achieving Oppy 1 and 2 awards. All the cadets and their families took part in a race on the Saturday. Along with the sailing we built rafts and raced them, enjoyed jumping off of the jetty, swimming and rib rides.

June’s cadet night saw us once again having fun on the water with jumping off of the jetty and then canoeing.

If this sound like fun and you want to get active as a family then please do not hesitate and get in touch.