Preparing for the 2020 Season

Windcheck, an excellent monthly magazine for northeast sailors, shares a view of the upcoming sailing season amid health guidelines.

There is going to be a lot of family boating this summer. Professional sports are going to be severely curtailed. Concerts? Amusement parks? Festivals? Hard to imagine.

If you thought you were the Families’ Chief Entertainment Officer before, you have a whole new level of responsibility coming at you in Summer 2020.

First, if we are going boating as a family, then the whole family needs to have fun.

Some of you are blessed with spouses and kids who have always shared the passion for the water. They race with you or enjoy cruising and have the seamanship skills to take the boat out on their own.

On the other end of the spectrum, some of you have basically dragged the family out on the water, hoping they will learn through osmosis, your skills, and love, as you try not to yell at them at critical moments.

There is a better way….the family will have a lot more fun if they have more knowledge. Typically, that is conveyed by someone other than you. Most professional sailing or boating education operations are figuring out ways to keep their teaching going this spring….and these solutions are going to mean either video, smaller class sizes, and thus capacity, or both. This also means DON’T WAIT! Sign up the family for lessons…soon!

In the meantime, shorthanded racing, especially with family, will be “a thing”.

New concepts are popping up. One comes from Adam Loory, a longtime racer on Long Island Sound and skipper of the custom 40-footer SOULMATES. He is organizing a doublehanded “pick-up game” to be sailed May 9th on Western Long Island Sound as a trial. So far it looks like 14 boats will come sail.

To maximize social distancing, there will be no race committee. The plan is to use a pursuit start so that the order of finish is the standings. There will be no entry form, no entry fee, no party, and no trophies. No yacht club, sailing association or company is involved — “Especially not UK Sailmakers, where I have been working for 30 years,” said Loory.

It is designed purely as a chance for people to sail and have some competitive fun. If it works out, Loory will try to organize some more races on this format and hopefully have a distance race on Memorial Day weekend. But this is all contingent on the first event going well. For more info contact adam@uksailmakers.com.