News

Thursday 6th of September 2012 was an important day for the unit.

The Unit Annual General Meeting took place that evening and Lt Peter Saupe chose this occasion to hand over command of the unit to PO Paul Andrews.

Lieutenant Saupe has served on the staff of the unit for 35 years and was a cadet in the unit before that. For eleven of those years he commanded the unit (in three seperate stints). His contribution to the success of the unit is hard to overstate and the Unit Management Committee offered their profound thanks for his many years of hard work and dedication to making the cadet experience both enjoyable and worthwhile.

Petty Officer Andrews joined the unit in February 2010 after service as a regular in the army. He has made a big contribution to the unit in the last two years, specialising in Expedition Training and working hard to complete courses to enable him to instruct cadets in the skills involved.

Lt Saupe is stepping down as CO but is not retiring. He is staying on as Boats Officer and we will continue to see much more of him in this role.

PO Andrews is taking over a successful unit but his task is nevertheless a daunting one. We wish him every success in the role and hope that everyone will give him their enthusiastic support.

On Saturday 18th August, Tiverton Sea Cadets visited the Sea Cadet flagship, the square-rigged brig TS Royalist.

TS Royalist was berthed at Plymouth Yacht Haven, Mount Batten, awaiting a new complement of cadets for a week of sail training. One of our cadets, AC Hunter Annan was due to join the ship and the CO decided to take the opportunity for others to visit it too.

Seven cadets and two staff took part in the visit. After exploring the Barbican area of Plymouth, we duly arrived at Mount Batten and were given a tour of the 'Royalist' by the coxswain - very impressive. Several of the visitors expressed an interest in sailing on the ship in future - in some cases when they are old enough.

As it happened, another Sea Cadet training ship was in the same marina - TS Jack Petchey. This is a modern motor vessel, quite different from Royalist but impressive in its own way. We were kindly given a tour of her too.

The weather was a bit unkind but cleared when we left Hunter behind and stopped for lunch on the way home. Definitely an interesting and worthwhile day out.

Acting Petty Officer Samantha Challenger has been a safety boat driver at the Olympics. The Tiverton Gazette ran an article about her in its August 7th 2012 issue (page 19) 

When volunteers were called for to man safety boats, Samantha Challenger put her name forward.  After a thorough selection process, Sam was chosen as a safety boat driver. She has been at Eton Dorney, near London, this past week providing cover for the canoe sprint events and the training that preceded them.

She, with one crew member, manned a safety boat there to go to the assistance of any canoeist that capsized or otherwise needed help. Apart from recovering them from the water, the crew was required to give initial first aid if necessary.

Sam, who lives in Willand, gained all her skills for this task through the Sea Cadets Corps.  A former pupil of Cullompton Community College and Petroc, she spent 5 years as a member of the Tiverton Unit, rising to the rank of Leading Cadet. Amongst her achievements were kayaking, sailing and power boat qualifications, a first aid certificate and selection as Tiverton’s first ever Mayor’s Cadet (appointed by Cllr P.Graham in May 2009).

When she turned 18, Sam stayed with the Tiverton Sea Cadets as a volunteer instructor. In this role, she has consolidated her training with more courses, including safety boat training, whilst passing on her skills and enthusiasm to the next generation of Sea Cadets. She has now achieved the rank of Acting Petty Officer. All being well, she will continue with the unit for many more years.

She is a great example of what a cadet can achieve. Well done Sam.

The Tiverton Balloon Festival took place from Friday 24th August, to Sunday 26th August at the Tiverton High School/Petroc campus.

Tiverton Sea Cadets manned the public car park on the first two days. The weather was somewhat unkind and the fields were very muddy. On the Saturday, in particular, we helped push out literally hundreds of cars from the mud. By the end of the day it was hard to find a patch of blue uniform under the brown mud!

On Sunday the weather was better and we swapped with the Air Cadets so that we manned the much drier campus parking areas. There was time to take a break and tour the festival and the organisers provided very adequate refreshments. Sunday, at least, was a great success for the organisers of the Balloon Festival and the event may become a regular part of the Tiverton calendar.

Overall, it was three days of very hard work and we didn't finish until after 10 pm on the Sunday evening. Nevertheless, everyone seemed to have enjoyed themselves and we can be proud of the good impression we created in the public eye.

Some cadets and staff put in very long hours. Thanks to all who took part - it was a very good effort

The ET weekend at Crickhowell (Breacon Beacons) on 3rd-5th August was almost as wet as the Wye Valley weekend in July. Nevertheless, those that took part really enjoyed themselves - especially the rock climbers.

Another weekend is planned for Long Mynd in Shropshire on 14th to 16th September.

If you haven't contacted PO Andrews to book for this weekend, do so as soon as possible.