Coronavirus Update
Thursday 14th May
Firstly – we hope you are all keeping well and staying safe in these difficult times. Many of us are having to self-isolate either because we are vulnerable or somebody in our household is at risk.
The committee recently held a meeting via Zoom. We discussed various options as to how we could offer access to sailing again this year. Our main priority being to ensure we can keep everybody safe and to do that, we have to provide the required 2m social distancing advised by the Government.
We believe that it will not be possible to comply with the 2 m distance when assisting sailors into our boats. It is also not possible to deliver any assisted sailing supported by Buddies without having to use PPE for our members and volunteers.
Guidance from the Government issued on 11th May says that people can travel to and participate in outdoor sports either with members of their own household, or by maintaining a safe 2m distance from one other person. The RYA guidelines are similar, in that people can participate in sailing if it is safe to do so.
Milton Keynes Sailing Club have announced that they will allow people to sail their own boats either as solo sailors or with family members. They advise that the clubhouse and changing rooms remain shut and that there will be NO SAFTEY BOAT cover.
Our current thoughts are that it will be very difficult to run Sailability sessions at this time. We have undertaken a risk assessment and feel we are unable to provide a safe environment for our sailors and the risks to our volunteers will be too high. We may organise some limited sailing much later in the year when the virus transmission risk has been lowered (Government Step 3), but only for people who are physically well and don’t need to remain in isolation.
To explain this in more detail, the committee would like to invite all sailors, volunteers and carers to join on a Zoom video call where we can present our plans. That way you will be fully briefed and will have theopportunity to ask questions on the call. Wednesday 20th May 19:00 – 20:00 Invitation to follow via email. Make sure you have the Zoom Application on your computer, phone or tablet. https://zoom.us/download
We are sorry that we can’t offer better news at the moment. We will keep you informed as to what our plans are and will update further on Facebook and Web Site with further information. You can also get more guidance from theRYA Website.
PLEASE STAY SAFE
Dusting off the cobwebs
Sunday 15th March
Saturday 14th March marked the day that we took the boats out of there winter hybernation. To make sure that we were ready to welcome members when the season begins on Saturday 4th April we have duty to ensure that our boats are in tip top shape
Yesterday was our annual rigging day. This is our chance to check over our boats and carry out any essential maintenance that is required as well as give them a good scrub down ready for our members and volunteers ready to use for the upcoming season
We couldn't do this without the help of our fabulous volunteers who yesterday turned out in their numbers to lend a hand. To every single one of you THANK YOU. Thanks to you we are now ready for the season to begin on Saturday 4th April