Cadets in Charge at Delph Sailing Club

by Ian Brown 8 Sep 00:57 PDT 6 September 2026

Cadets in Charge at Delph © Theo Dibbits

Sunday 6th September saw the Cadets in Charge once again at Delph Sailing Club. The team for this popular fixture was made up entirely of the club's juniors under the watchful eye of Race Officer Molly Haslam (17) who managed to set some fantastic courses in some quite tricky conditions with heavier than expected winds and lower than hoped for water levels.

Amongst the usual suspects on the starting line was Lochlyn Grant wishing to test his new MK2 ILCA4 sail which he has recently received through the clubs grants program, whilst his mother Carren was taking place in her first race at the club as crew in Miracle 4098. Other competitors to note were Charlie Ball with his frankly ridiculously large ILCA8.1 sail and Alex in one of the club's training boats.

After some barging on the line, race 1 went like clockwork and the sailors needed to make some tough tactical decisions, with the run down the reservoir having been set dead by Molly and her team. Graham and Tony got the honours with Alex proving that the Fusions are not just utilitarian training boats. Lochlyn with his new sail finished a very impressive 4th.

Race 2 was where the fun began starting with a general recall. But with the fleet cleanly away on the 2nd attempt, something quite strange occurred. Molly had set 5 laps which is 1 less than 6, but as the lead boat of Graham and Tony began to lap boats on their final leg, they inexplicably sailed right past the finish line without passing through it. Ian and Carren in Miracle 4098, having been lapped, correctly crossed the line at the end of their 4th lap but as the boat in front hadn't, they were effectively instantly unlapped and had no option but to proceed with another lap. A number of other boats thought about finishing, and if they had they might have won, but in an act of mass hysteria every single one of them proceeded to do exactly 1 more lap than had been set by the race officer. I wish I was making this up.

Molly and her results team were left scratching their heads as to what on earth we were all doing but perhaps the course she had set was simply so good, we just couldn't stop racing? Once the unnecessary lap was completed the computer showed that Lochlyn's new sail had been worth the investment as he finished with a bullet and then promptly retired to finish watching the Formula 1 in Monza where Antonelli could not be faulted across 53 laps.

After a break for a heated discussion on how to count, race 3 began with a reduced field on a different course to account for a wind shift. It was a race without incident except that the lead boat of Graham and Tony managed to successfully tally their laps this time and finish on schedule with another bullet to take the overall lead and win the event.

It is certainly a day we will be talking about for a very long time but it was only made possible through the terrific investment the club has made in our younger members. For some of the team like Nicholas Taylor, Poppy Haslam and Jacob Din this was their last duty before they set off for university. Molly was ably assisted in the committee boat by her RS200 crew Will Taylor (15) whilst Lilly Brown (17) in the box, knows a thing or two about how to count laps having won the latest NWJYT event at Redesmere the day before in a fleet of 39 boats of vastly varying handicaps. Big shout out to Rachel Ward and her team for managing that event!

Finley Smith (15) and Ava Harris-Scott (16) completed the rest of the safety team in conditions that both of them would have relished had they been able to sail themselves but as with all sailing clubs, we are only able to put on such an incredible race program at Delph because we have so many highly trained volunteers willing to give up their time. If you are old enough to get your PB2, you will get duties, and judging by the high quality racing yesterday, there is a lot to be learned from the younger generation, in particular, their arithmetic.