Month: March 2021

by Chris Thorne

Musa Fortin presented the 2021 sailing program plan to the executive and membership at our last general meeting. We will be rolling out programs at reduced capacity and as health conditions improve new programs will introduced to meet demand. Participants can expect program fees may increase by as much as 15% compared to 2019 reflecting higher coach to sailor ratios and increased health costs.

Summer Youth Programs

Summer programs will start first week of July and run through to the end of August. The sailing program will be comprised of Juniors, Girl Power Sailing, Opti Bronze, CANSail 1/2 (formally Summer Fun), CANSail 3, and Cansail 4/5. The half day Wet Feet program will not be run but Juniors will now accommodate sailors as young as 5 years. Programs will use single handed boats: Lasers (4.7 and Radial rigs) and Optis, but if health restrictions relax we may consider running double handed 420 programs. We will run 3 concurrent sailing programs each day with a possible evening session. Some sail programs will now include a minimum weight requirement.

School and Scout Programs

We will accept school and scout programs bookings for May and June; however, organizers should be aware the programs would require use of double handed boats which do not currently meet social distancing requirements.

Youth Race Team

Rocky Point Sailing will run a Spring and Fall session with training beginning on Sunday May 2nd. Currently there are no BC circuit races scheduled.

Adult Programs

A limited adult program is planned for Summer and Fall. Current guidelines would limit us to two boats and four participants which must be of the same private residence.

Private Lessons

The general meeting had no specific discussion of private lesson. A private lesson maybe considered in situations where participants are of the same private household.

by Chris Thorne

At Rocky Point Sailing our executive has discussed offering a more diverse youth program and return of adult sailing, but until there is more clarity with respect to the COVID-19 pandemic we are going to withhold posting our 2021 registration for another month.

BC Sailing currently recommends that youth program groups be limited to no more than 50 people (including coaches), physical distancing to 3 meters at all times, single handed sailing only unless both sailors live in the same private residence, and no sailing regattas.

Under those guidelines our offering maybe similar to that which we ran last year. However, if the health situation improves we have discussed running an after school program starting in May, a complete youth summer program starting in July, and an adult program in August. There is a good chance that regardless of the pandemic outcome, double handed sailing for youth and adults will require sailors to live in the same private residence. The executive has also discussed adjustments to program fees to offset reduced program capacities and additional health safety costs.

Our membership offerings will also be affected by the pandemic, but we hope to see a return the Thursday night club races starting in May. The keelboat members are planning to locate a keelboat in Desolation Sound for summer cruising. At this time we have limited capacity to run private lessons or orient new dinghy members.

Please contact us or comment if you have specific questions and I’ll see they are brought to attention at our next general meeting which is scheduled for March 16th.