Junior Offshore Group

Racing Update from the Captain, 26th February 2021

The, much heralded, Roadmap out of Lockdown has been announced and the JOG Flag Officers and Committee members have considered it in some detail. A degree of interpretation is needed, of course, and we have always stated that we would preserve social responsibility whilst doing our best to achieve a sensible racing programme.

The good news is that we can see some real progress with the roll out of the vaccinations and there are some dates to work around, albeit that there are caveats which could cause dates to slip. For this reason, we will not be making any announcements on the latter part of the season, post the end of May, whilst we see how things develop. Like last year when the changes were coming thick and fast, we expect that there will be further commentary and advice which may influence our plans.

We have published an amended programme on the website. Suffice it to say that the One Sails Lonely Tower race is postponed from the 20th March as we do not see any latitude to allow us to race at all.  It is re-scheduled for Friday 2nd April (Good Friday) followed by a further race on Easter Sunday.  

Similarly, the Roadmap does not give scope for overnight stays on board for non-family groups until at least 17th May so, regrettably, we are staging only Inshore day races until then to allow you to return to your home port as appropriate. Our Easter destination to Eastbourne and the early May Bank Holiday venues have been exchanged as you will see in the new programme.

Race entry will be available on our website from 8th March, by which times our slick new amendments to the systems will be in place.

We will be publishing new Sailing Instructions soon and will be putting a crew limitation in place of a maximum of 6, irrespective of family group considerations, for the early season racing until 21st June at the earliest, pending any further Governmental instructions or guidance from the RYA or external sources. 

Please have a good look at the SI’s when they appear for any other particular requirements such as we introduced last year to avoid the unnecessary call out of the Emergency Services. However, at this stage, we are planning to resume our more normal check list requirements with no additions.

With the changes to the Cat 3 races, we are also amending the Notice of Race to change the Series Points requirements. The Inshore Series will have a higher number of races and the Offshore Series a smaller number so we have changed the number of discards. The detail is in the amended NoR.

For those of you who are struggling to get to work on your boats with a variety of Yard restrictions in place, the date changes will at least give a little more elbow room and we hope that we will see as many of you as possible out on the water. If you are “arm chair sailing”, we at least have some new member’s benefits to console you!

As ever, the Secretary and myself are happy to hear from you if you need more guidance or information and I wish everyone well.

Dougie Leacy

The sharp eyed of our members will have noticed that the Programme and Notice of Race have been updated and modified with the two May Bank Holiday UK destinations swapped around. This has been done to allow us the longest possible time to accommodate the option to race across Channel at the end of May if this becomes feasible. The Committee have been talking at length about the new season and we will continue to monitor the Covid pandemic requirements as well as the, post Brexit, border issues in France, the roll out of their own vaccination programme and quarantine requirements and the practical issues of clearing in and out of foreign ports. All this requires a crystal ball and we can only apply our best judgement and keep watching all the developments as they unfold.

For the moment, we are still hoping that the first race, the One Sails Lonely Tower, will be able to go ahead. We will keep you all notified. It may be that we will need to put in place some further safety measures, as we did last year, but, again, we will notify through the WhatsApp groups and in the News section as normal.

Our website is in the process of a major update, all going on in the background. Whilst there will not be much obvious change to the content, it will accommodate the latest thinking on the needs for the next few years. It will be faster, more flexible and allow the introduction of a new race officer’s platform for processing results. This does mean that races will not be “on sale” for a few more weeks but we are also waiting to see how any continuing restrictions affect our ability to get out on the water.

For those who have credits from last year, don’t forget that you will find the vouchers at the “checkout” when race entries start to be taken. The JOG shop is open if you want to use any credit on polo shirts or new burgees and battle flags instead. Any un-redeemed balance will still be there until the end of the season.

I’m pleased to report that the regular band of race box volunteers are itching to get back with newly vaccinated protection (we hope) to keep everyone safe. In the meantime, I hope everyone is managing to cope with the health and economic difficulties and I wish you all well, with my fingers firmly crossed for March 20^th.

Dougie Leacy

Salcombe Gin, distilled & crafted by Salcombe Distilling Co. (SDCo.), has come on board to officially sponsor the JOG Sopranino Race which will be taking place over the first May Bank Holiday weekend in 2021. It will start on Friday 30th April, so make sure you reserve your spot.

They will be handing out parcels to every participating boat as they arrive into Dartmouth, come day or night, and will also have some spectacular prizes lined up for those that win. 

In the meantime, they are offering all JOG members an exclusive 15% discount off Salcombe Gin products (excludes vouchers, staycations, experiences and botanical prints) which you will find on the membership benefit page. 

Finally, we will be running a competition with them offering you the chance to win a luxury Salcombe Gin ‘Start Point’ Hamper, so keep your eyes peeled on our social media page and emails for details on how to enter. 

If for any reason we cannot go to Dartmouth, the event will still go ahead but will be altered to cater for any COVID-related considerations. The JOG committee will continue to keep you updated on the matter.