principles are based upon self-reliance. The lone paddleboarder, seeking his daily exercise, has even more reason to cry ‘nuts’. ‘We went from being aware of the problem yet proceeding with caution to realising within only two days that this is serious and we had to find a way out,’ said Jay Gowell, chairman of the Newport to Bermuda Race. Gowell said in early March the fleet surgeon for the race had some insider information from hospitals in Boston, as well as directly from the Center for Disease Control, that this was an extremely dangerous virus, with unpredictable effects. ‘CCA has throughout its history adhered strongly to principles of seamanship and safety, it’s part of our culture,’ explained Gowell. ‘We require rigorous compliance with offshore safety standards in both training and equipment. When it became clear the race’s required Safety at Sea seminar had to be cancelled we still con- sidered waiving the requirement for in-person attendance to accept online participation. But then two days of frenetic meetings later we realised there was simply no way forward to run this race, for safety reasons and because any alternative format would not deliver the event we and our participants would want nor had planned for.’ A new race village planned in Newport, for example, would not be possible, and if run today no one heading to Bermuda would be permitted to enter the country. Gowell said many suggestions were offered, such as don’t land in Bermuda, just round the island and come back; appealing as this may be to some hard-core short- handers, this is a tiny percentage of the 200 entries on the books. ‘This is a race that many teams plan for years in advance, so we want as much as possible to not move their goalposts,’ he said. Due to insurance restrictions for the hurricane season, moving dates later in the summer was not going to work, nor would trying a year later because other biennial events would then be pressured. And there is the thorny topic of refund policy. At $55/foot this is not an inexpensive race. This was not easy but also not hard to formulate: the NOR asked for a 50 per cent deposit on entry that became non-refundable after 20 February. As it is a biennial race funded mostly by entry fees, offering to apply the fees to the next edition was not going to work either.
‘We wish we could refund more, but the simple reality is that the money was already spent on a new website, new scoring programme, promotions and marketing, deposits with site vendors, media infra- structure etc,’ says Gowell. The organisers at CCA work on a vol- unteer basis with all costs borne by their members, including travel costs, so this is not in the budget. And while the entry fee may seem steep, for the teams this is a fraction of the total cost of participating. ‘We did our best to explain all that goes into a race of this calibre, and very few disagreed with the policy,’ said Gowell. ‘Also, everyone appreciated us making an early decision to minimise further damage, and give themselves more options for future planning.’
SCREEN BREAK – Jon Emmett
Every cloud has a silver lining and the current crisis will no doubt change the way we work, train and play. With most of the world in lockdown it has actually been a chance for many people to catch up with old friends, albeit electronically, and it is these human interactions that are so key for our mental health. It has also been a moment of truth for those tasks like tidying up the sailing gear in the garage which we claim we never have time for. Now we realise that perhaps time was not the problem, more the problem was motivation (busy people always find time for what is important). Motivation is key to the success of any task: more on this later. Then there are new unchallenged opportunities to train. Probably the easiest training to talk about is the physical side, simply because this is simpler to measure. Physical training is not only important for our ability to be fit to perform the required task but also health, recovery and mental well-being. 1. Think what is required of you during a race day. This decides your day-to-day training. If a typical race day is 3 x 45-minute races with approximately 15 minutes’ rest in between, then this is a good starting point for any training we do at home.
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