Is Racing Allowed?

Originally posted by H2 Originally posted by Chris_H I dunno why people cant just enjoy the buzz of leisure sailing and being on the water. Why this drive to go racing so quickly? It will come in time. I know my view is not so popular on here, as most here are dedicated racers, and hence why they are on this forum - but somewhere along the way, and a part reason why sailing is declining (amongst many other factors) is that "sailing" has now become defined as "racing". We forget that to get to racing, you need to go sailing first, enjoy it, - and thats why you took up the sport in the first place. Just chill, sail, enjoy. We are very lucky people even to be able to do this ... I do not disagree with you, but no one has ever tried to stop you just going for a pootle when you want. If you like drfiting around then fill ya boots.....but why are you interested in stopping the rest of us go racing? Whats your motivation for that? We let you do your thing...

Originally posted by H2 Chris - coming to a forum aimed at racers and blathering on about the joys of pottering and lecturing people on why they are wrong is pretty annoying, especially when the thing you are advocating for us to do will have zero effect on stopping the spread of C19. I know you mention you are a Boomer in your signature, but sir, you are setting a new standard in Bommer.

Hey, there's twenty of us, shhh you plank, somebody might hear, OK everyone synch your watches, five minutes and Go, Ffs though 'don't shout GO', no one will notice us all lined up, giggling like naughty school boys

What a disappointingly aggressive turn of events. If you really can’t see that the more people congregate in an area the more risk there is, you are deluded. Maybe the risk is still acceptable, who knows, but it is higher.

The RYA tell me that govt advise is still:

Stay at home as much as possible
Work from home if you can
Limit contact with other people
Keep your distance if you go out (stay 2 metres (6ft) apart where possible)
Wash your hands regularly

Organised racing seems to push these more than free sailing. If racing it is harder (or less fair) to limit numbers, boats are likely to launch and recover at the same time, boats will be pushed harder (hence more likely for something to go wrong) and there will be more to discuss afterwards.

I know generally the risks are pretty low for any individual and with care they are lower still, but the impression some give is that they believe the whole thing is over and racing can pretty much resume as before. In my three free sails so far someone has moved (touched) my trolley, held the end of my boom to stop it hitting them and several people have chatted at closer distance than I was comfortable with. These obviously happens more with more people around and a common event to focus on.

One of my clients is a large manufacturer with 10,000 or so staff. Last year they banned the use of Stanley knives because of too many injuries. As you would expect this was ridiculed because most of them had never hurt themselves. As an individual, if you injure yourself every 10,000 days you can expect to go an entire career with perhaps one minor cut. But as a company on average there is an accident every single day - despite training, despite PPE and despite notices. There was so much time list to first aid and form filling it made sense, from their perspective, to ban the use. It is similar with racing. The risk to the individual is low, but collectively it may be too much. Or it may not, but the decision can’t be made on the risk to an individual.