Afternoon folks, I hope this post finds you safe and well. Lockdown rules around the UK are somewhat different from country to country, no sailing in England currently but here in Wales we had a club outing yesterday, the first in more than a month. It felt good to get back on the water.

Lots of exciting vaccine news over the last few weeks with the potential to begin the huge task of getting us all stabbed in the arm in the not too distant future.

So, what does this mean for our 2021 calendar? In truth it doesn’t mean a lot for probably the first half of the new season. Planning is well underway for the two National Championships, the 95’s will remain at Fleetwood, the 65 venue may change and as soon as we have more to tell you we will let you know the details.

As for the TT series it’s a tough one. It would be tough to arrange a whole raft of events only to have to cancel them as we did this season. So we have taken the stance that we’ll see what the lay of the land is as the vaccine is hopefully rolled out and once we are confident that being stabbed in the arm is the answer to the problem then we’ll get on and put a race calendar together. I think you should expect that it’ll be a May / June onward affair which might make for a busy second half to the season, but hey, that’s no bad thing having being sat at home for the thick end of a year.

Many events have passed this year without taking place, I for one have stood next to the fridge looking at the calendar on the wall thinking I should be racing this weekend but the van hasn’t been packed, the hotels have been cancelled and boats have remained in park ferme. Luckily the calendar is near the fridge and I’ve been able to indulge in a sad snack whilst contemplating what might have been. I’m sure I’m not alone.

One such event was the DF65 Globals which was scheduled for the beginning of September. Obviously it was cancelled and we’ve heard from the organisers that the new event will not take place in 2021 but it has been scheduled for May 2022 which hopefully gives the world chance to get back to some sort of normality. It’s a while off yet but it’s worth an entry into a phone to remind you.

There is no Dinghy Show in 2021 either, the new venue of Farnborough was something to look forward to however after some consultation with the RYA and exhibitors it was decided to postpone until 2022. There is a virtual show but we’re not sure of the value to us so we’ll probably give it a miss and plan for 2022.

Not much other news to report currently but we hope that you’re all safe and well.

And to finish, here’s a picture from Sue Brown to cheer you all up.