Nelson’s TS Talisman Sea Cadets have brought the South Island Skills trophy back to Nelson after a 22 year drought.

The South Island Skills Competition held at Christchurch 16-18 March included nine events, of which Talisman won six, including the sailing regatta and competitions in drill, first aid, rigging, knots and splices and the Best Team Spirit award.

The team, led by PO Monique Claus of Belgrove (16) developed a commanding lead in each of the races. While humbled at theawards ceremony having to collect so many trophies, Monique said it was great to see all the hard work, training and persistence pay off. TS Talisman's Unit Commander SLT Milo Coldren says Monique is one of four cadet sailing instructors at Talisman trained by Yachting New Zealand.

“Traditionally, it used to be all adult instructors teaching sailing and other skills," he says. "Now we're training the cadets as instructors, with the adult staff supporting and mentoring them and the results speak for themselves.”

YNZ coaching development manager Rob Hielkema says it is great to see the cadets embracing the Yachting NZ coaching pathway.

"This allows sailors to teach others and analyse how to sail better themselves. Learning to coach others is a large part of learning to sail yourself and is beneficial because being taught by people of a similar age you use similar language and have the same feel for the experience. This is far better than someone much older yelling instructions, which feels more like a dad's lecture."

While working closely with Yachting NZ, TS Talisman has studied the methods of the Royal Canadian Sea Cadets, who havebeen instrumental in helping make the shift to modern training concepts by sharing their resources.

Nelson's Sea Cadet unit is one of the largest in New Zealand, which SLT Coldren says is thanks to the quality of staff and terrific community support.

Do you know a young teenager who may want to be a Sea Cadet?TS Talisman will hold a fun open day on the water in Nelson for 13 and 14 year olds from 10am-3pm Tuesday, 17 April. For details and RSVP, please check out www.tsTalisman.com email admin@tstalisman.com or call 0800 SEA CADET

ENDS

© Scoop Media