Chipmates camp at Chipstead Sailing Club
by Chipmates camp team 5 Aug 20:21 NZST
29 July 2024
Chipstead Sailing Club's Junior Class held its annual Chipmates camp at the end of July which was a huge success. Forty children aged 7-14 took part in a whole host of on the water activities under the guidance of lead DI Izzy Cobb's team of junior instructors.
Camp attendees arrived on Monday morning to a transformed clubhouse and individual goodie bags made possible by sponsorship from Noble Marine. After briefing and posing for the obligatory photo in their camp tops, fleets wasted no time in getting onto the water... although the red fleet had to build themselves some rafts first!
Mim and Jim taught the blue fleet how to tie a bowline before supporting the youngest sailors to create a convoy of Optimist dinghies which they towed around the lake.
Raft-building and fleet sailing took up the morning but this year's afternoons took on a different format. Chipmates (and their non-sailing siblings) signed up for a range of sessions including the first two races of the inaugural camp race series, sailing games and the Sea Clean UK sponsored cardboard boat build.
Day 2's briefing included a short talk by Wealden Sailability founder Brian Stanley who introduced the Chipmates to the work of the organisation and explained why the Hansa 303s are so stable. We were delighted to once again have the support of Wealden Sailability who had so generously loaned the Junior Class a number of 303s for the mid-summer regatta just a few weeks ago.
This time, Juniors paired up with one another to sail the 303s whilst parents, carers and siblings took the opportunity to visit the far end of the lake aboard the Drascombe Longboat. After another busy (and very hot!) afternoon of treasure hunts, racing, sailing games and cardboard engineering, Chipmates and their families cooled off in the lake during a pre-tea family SUP session.
Tea was provided by Gina and Michael of Pirouni (Greek food) before most families slowly made their way home and teenagers undertook their now traditional SUP pilgrimage to the east of the lake and on to Tesco to purchase smores ingredients for the car park campers' campfire.
The wind picked up on the final day which included the much anticipated Topper relay as well as the cardboard boat race. Assistant Instructors Aidan, Emily, Mim and Tom each took the helm of their fleet Topper whilst DIs Dan, Izzy, Jim and Toby were responsible for loading fleet members onto the increasingly cramped dinghies.
The lightweight blue fleet won by quite some margin, helped by Mim performing a deft 'blink and you'll miss it' scooping up of a (7-yr-old) man overboard as she raced the already full Topper back to the shore to pick up its ninth passenger. Other helms struggled against the 13 knot north easterly wind intent on pushing them away from the finish... and from lunch.
To finish Chipmates camp 2024, engineers and nominated sailors of the cardboard boats lined up on the foreshore. Five boats disintegrated almost upon contact with the water but another four exceeded expectations by reaching the flag mark beyond the pontoon and returning to shore! Six-year-old Thomas was crowned the winning cardboard boat builder of 2024 thanks to the rapid paddling of Beatrice and Jenson.
Chipmates camp 2024 was brilliant! Thank you to Jacs, Rebecca, Ian and Izzy for their months of planning and to everyone who gave their time and energy to ensure it ran smoothly. An extra special thank you is due to CSC's Training Principal Nigel Lamb and Rear Commodore Keith Turtle for their ongoing support of the Junior Class and to this year's camp sponsors; Noble Marine, Sea Clean UK, C-monsta, Fernhurst Books and Rooster Sailing.