LAST weekend saw Sea Cadets from Barry unit take three trophies at the South Wales District power/pulling (rowing) regatta, which was held at the Barry Waterfront.

The South Wales District is made up of teams from Barry, Cardiff, Newport, Penarth, Porthcawl, Rhondda and Torfaen.

Following a training session last Saturday, Barry Junior Boys (12-under 15's) were left a crew member down but cadet Shannon Cooper stepped forward and volunteered to coxswain the pulling team, which enabled them to enter as open boys crew instead.

This turned out to their advantage and they finished top of their age group - crew members were leading cadet Jon Cooper, able cadet's George Dixon, Adam Smith, Ben Phillips coxswain - AC Emily Higgins.

The open boys (15 and over) was a much closer event, with the final placings left until the last pulling event of the day between Rhondda and Barry.

There was very little between the boats at the halfway stage and with the wind behind them both teams were flying.

Unfortunately for Rhondda, with less than 250 yards to go one of the oars broke which prevented a photo finish – not taking anything away from Barry cadets, who fought very hard with determination to win this event, in this their first year together as a team.

Crew members were cadets Keiron Lambe, James Mansbridge, Daniel Davies, Gareth Crapnell with cadet Shannon Cooper as coxswain.

With a couple of the junior sea cadets (10-under 12) missing, JSC Bowen and JSC Mansbridge joined the teams from Rhondda and Torfaen and helped the teams to first and second place in their age category.

The last event of the day was the power boat handling competition in which, again cadet Cooper stepped into the breach and made it possible for the other team members to take part in this event.

This is the first year Barry had a very young all female crew aged 12-14 who displayed the skills at engine checks, towing, turning in confined space, man overboard, securing to a buoy as well coming alongside safely.

Other crew members were ordinary cadet Sam Chambers and cadet Christie Davies.

Congratulations to all three teams on their achievement. The commanding officer and staff wish them all good luck at the area combined regatta in July which is being held in Bristol.

Well done and thank you to all cadets and staff who helped make the weekend the success it was.

Next weekend Barry travel to Llandegfedd to take part in the district canoeing competition.

If you are aged between 10 and 65 and interested in doing something different, contact the unit on 07999861790 leaving your name, address and contact details and someone will get back to you as soon as possible.