Sailing in Barbados as well as the Caribbean by extension is feeling a financial squeeze because of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, says president of the Barbados Sailing Association (BSA) Dr. Gus Reader.
The Mount Gay Regatta, a major annual sailing event on the national calendar is now cancelled. Barbadian sailors are also feeling the frustration of not being able to travel and compete outside the country in places like St Maarten and Antigua.
“The whole Caribbean racing season has come to an abrupt halt which for Barbados is the opportunity to compete because we are not hosting any of them at this time. But for the Caribbean on a whole it is a major revenue lost for many of the islands.
“We are not getting any income from our boats and that is the sailing association itself. We are not able to charter them, we are not able to lease them, we are not able to gain any entry fees from the regatta which is a source of income for us,” Reader said.
He added: “Everything is on lockdown, recreational sailing has been prohibited. All of the main sites of storage, the Barbados Yacht Club, the Barbados Cruising Club, are on lockdown, businesses are closed. And obviously boats are not a reason to be out under the curfew.”
Reader revealed that this year the BSA also had plans in the works for the implementation of a training programme in conjunction with the Ministry of Maritime Affairs. But he noted that the programme planned for March was now put back until further notice.
“The most important thing we were supposed to start the training programme from the end of March and that is also on hold because social distancing is not possible on a boat. That was our major project for this year, to get the basic training programme up and running.
“We had intended with the support of the ministry to offer sailing to a much broader spectrum of the population and to take in some youth who would be identified by the ministry for training as sailors. They can possibly go on to a career in sailing,” Reader explained.
The sailing season runs from January to July and since the end of February, all events according to Reader have been cancelled or postponed. The annual Old Brigand Regatta had a mere two overseas entries which Reader said he understood considering what is taking place with COVID-19 and therefore no need to take any chances.
The BSA president said they have never experienced anything of this magnitude where it has stopped sailing completely. He explained there were many times where BSA experienced bad weather and shutdown for short periods of time but nothing to this extent.
“Our major events during this period locally would have been the Old Brigand Regatta scheduled for two days in March. But officially it has been postponed. We would try to host it later on; our sponsors are in agreement. But we will see how things go.
“The J24 open event which is our major racing class in Barbados was scheduled for the end of April and that is now postponed. We will see how things go as far as getting back into sailing. But as of right now nobody (sailors) is able to practise,” he said.
Once the curfew is lifted midnight of May 3, Reader said they would try to extend the season to August and that too depended on what occurs during the hurricane season.
“We will try to extend the season into July, August, depending on what the hurricane season is doing. The larger boats seek shelter during the hurricane season but the smaller ones which we want racing at the moment, we should be able to host events with them.
“The organisation (BSA) is still in place, sponsors are there. It is a matter of what form the recovery takes and what time people have on their hand because people have been on lockdown for a while. People have to work, and there are a lot of things to be done when things come back to normal.”
BSA also has plans for the 2020 We Gatherin initiative and until further noticed that has not changed.
“We had a plan to run during We Gatherin events. We planned to get our boats on the beach for the general public to go sailing. We get experienced sailors down and get the boats on the water and give people an opportunity to experience sailing, enjoy our maritime environment at the beautiful Carlisle Bay and maybe get them interested enough to want to sign up for a training course and maybe get involved in sailing,” Reader noted.
morissalindsay@barbadostoday.bb
