All,

Firstly, I want to thank everyone who responded to the GO / NO GO poll I sent out a few days ago. The number of responses was impressive and it’s apparent that the Hobie 17 sailors (who have been practicing social distancing since 1985) are itching to get out on the water. I count myself in that group.

The Bad News: A number of factors brought us to the difficult decision to postpone the 17/18/W/Y event at Ft. Walton Yacht club, scheduled for June 25-28:
• Low attendance projections in all classes but the 17s – and even those weren’t great (12). Many people were concerned about the lack of “tiller time” going into a major event.
• The current and projected state of the COVID-19 pandemic and the required protocols to safely conduct an event during these strange times.
• The probable inability of our Canadian friends to participate due to travel restrictions. You need at least two countries represented to call it a “North Americans.”
• The vulnerability of the RC volunteers (most of whom are over 60 years old - and a lot of us are too) to the virus.
• There would be no social events. The social aspect of these events is a large part of why we do them.
• Our liability insurance would not cover any claims related to COVID-19.

Over the past week, there have been a number of documents published on the general topic of “Returning to Competition.” I received an advance copy of the one from US Sailing yesterday, and I’m passing it along for your info. It’s so hot off the press, it’s not even on their web site yet. It’s probably the most clearly written of all the guides that have come out. The upshot of all these guides is that the recommendations impose a significant organizational overhead on an event.

Other published guidance:
• World Sailing - World Sailing Guidance to Event Organizers for the Protection of the Health of Sailing Communities
• RacingRulesofSailing.org - Covid 19 Policy Issues and Best Practices
• The Gowrie Group (the HCANA’s insurance broker) - COVID-19 Risk Management & Best Practices for Sailing Organizations

The Good News: We are working with Ocean Springs YC to bring back the Mini-Mega, October 19-25th. We are hopeful the world will be a bit more settled then. Included classes would be the Hobie Wave, 14, 17, 18, 16-Women, 16-Youth. We’re sorting out the details, but expect the event to be substantially identical to the one held in 2011. Stay tuned!

Again, thanks for everything and we hope to see you this fall!

Matt Bounds
Race Director