From Ned Goss, Offshore Sailing Coach from College of Charleston…
This year has been a very difficult year for everyone around the world. Life as we know it has changed forever. What was “normal” will never be normal again and as a result everything in my life and my wife’s life has had to change. Our new “Normal” looks very different.
Working from home, teaching sailing online over Zoom, and obeying new protocols to keep people safe are just some of the challenges we had to overcome. For me, change is very hard and this spring was no walk in the park. With the college spring sailing season canceled I started to wonder and worry what our summer sailing and racing would look like. Jess and I are lucky because we do live on Charleston harbor and we were able to get out on the water and sail and motor around while the world was going on lock down.
As spring moved into summer, the James Island YC decided to move forward with their open regatta. They understood that they could not hold their regatta like years past, so they needed to look at every aspect of hosting an event that could have upwards of 120 boats. Here are some of the things that had to change:
• All Registration would be online.
• They canceled all social events associated with the regatta.
• The skippers meeting would be hosted on a Zoom meeting.
• The awards would be mailed out to people.
• We spent 2 days mapping out the property and assigning spots for each boat with 6 feet in between each boat to keep social distancing.
• While mask were not mandatory (like they are now in a lot of places) they were very strongly suggested.
• They took everyone’s temp as they entered the property.
• Hand sanitizing stations were installed
