The boat is in the garage for the winter and its cold outside.
As I reflect back on 2020, it’s been a year. COVID-19 caught us all unprepared. Our sailing was incredibly impacted as was nearly every other aspect of our lives. It’s still amazing how much the world has changed, and I suspect some of these changes will be with us indefinitely. I certainly don’t miss traffic and telework feels pretty comfortable now.
In my part of the world, Hobie regattas were nearly all cancelled. We were able to sail but it was essentially local day trips. Someone at my sailing club coined the term “the year of local” and that certainly turned out to be the case, we saw a significant increase in local activity at our club. Restrictions were in place and we couldn’t do many of the usual things, but we found ways to have fun sailing. One interesting idea was to set up simple courses with a minimal race committee composed of two people from the same household on each boat. We would run races, but no scores were kept, and it was just as fun. The format was so simple, and any fleet could join in. Another successful concept was clinics. Again, easy to execute, fun and it helps build fleets. I am planning to incorporate more clinics into our future Hobie sailing.
We did eventually do some two-day regattas but there were no socials, and everyone stayed outside. Certainly COVID-19 is going to continue to be impactful in our lives for a while, we have learned some ways to still be able to enjoy Hobie sailing and to even run some events.
Since the weather has turned colder, the numbers of COVID-19 cases have increased, and the restrictions have as well. Things are so restricted in my area that even frostbite sailing has been cancelled. Unfortunately, the USA has not adopted a uniform set of rules, so things vary widely by state. I suspect this will change with our new administration.
As we end the year, we all have optimism as the vaccines roll out that the situation will start to improve, and life will slowly return to something closer to pre-pandemic. Certainly, it’s going to take time to vaccinate everyone around the world, but this is the solution. We are scheduling regattas for 2021 and have high hopes that we will be able to again travel. Looking forward to seeing my Hobie friends from around the world in 2021.
Happy Holidays. Better times are ahead, stay safe.
Rich