CLACTON Sailing Club held their annual cadet week.

Eager youngsters took to the water for an entertaining week of racing and sailing games.

Monday saw blue skies and a light breeze, which helped encourage them on to the water.

The cadets were shown how to rig the club’s Topper and Topaz fleets in the compound.

They then rigged their own choice of vessel and hit the sea, stopping for a brief lunch in the sailing club.

In the afternoon, the cadets encountered the thrill of competitive relay races, watched by the eagle-eyed rescue boat crew.

Jamie Lowe conquered the day’s competitions.

By Tuesday, the weather had turned to a mild grey winter’s day.

However, rain did not stop play and, once again, they hit the high sea in the morning to practice racing techniques.

The afternoon session saw competition between the cadets as they sailed to the outer distance mark bouy, capsized and raced to be the first to reach shore safely.

Rob Mercer was the winner.

Wednesday saw the return of the summer and the cadets were enticed round short-race courses to practice techniques from the previous day.

Older cadets were given the opportunity to log hours on the rescue boat, when it was not needed to provide safety cover.

Thursday and the return of grey skies and freshening winds made for a quick dash to the sea in case the day ended in compound sailing.

Skills were practiced on recovering a crew from the water.

Crews were dropped into the sea by the rescue boat and the race was on to see who could recover their crew first.

Competition was fierce between Lowe and William Stacey.

Luck shone and a full day’s sailing was enjoyed.

Friday was a day for free sailing.

Youngsters took advantage of the beautiful weather to round off their week with a barbecue. Certificates of participation were awarded to all the cadets and RYA log books signed.

Special mention of thanks goes to cadet commodore James Stacey, cadets Sam Ransom and James Rolf and club crew Jean Cheek, Neil Wann, Irina Vassiljeva, Debbie and Martin Chivers.