This past week, the FBYC Flag participated in the virtual Yacht Club Leadership Forum presented by US Sailing. The Forum offered an open exchange regarding the challenges facing yacht clubs around the country due to the CoVid-19 outbreak.

The Forum featured presentations by the commodores from several yacht clubs, including Jonathan Bartlett of Annapolis Yacht Club, as well as the President and the CEO of US Sailing. This highly informative program provided great insight into actions taken by other clubs as they work to address the CoVid-19 challenges. All clubs are facing problems similar to those that are being confronted at FBYC. The actions taken by substantially all of the clubs include strict adherence to the guidelines and recommendations of their local authorities, restricting the use of club facilities, and postponing or cancelling activities - racing, cruising, social and Junior programs - to address the safety of their members, their staff and their community.  The measures highlighted during the forum are remarkably similar to the actions employed at FBYC to protect the safety of our FBYC community. Our sister clubs are also grappling with the same issues that we are addressing regarding how and when to reopen their facilities and when and in what form to restart their club-sponsored sailing and social programs.

In addition to discussion of the impact of the pandemic on our respective activities and operations, the Forum highlighted activities, presentations and courses available on the US Sailing website. There are several programs that may be of interest to our members including the US Sailing Level I Instructors Course, the Safety at Sea Course and, particularly, the Race Management Course. 

Overall, the Forum helped to bring more ideas forward in how yacht clubs around the country are responding to our current challenges and how we might further promote an ongoing connection with the sport of sailing. In particular, the Forum demonstrated quite clearly that the protective measures that we have taken at FBYC are wholly consistent with the actions taken by the vast majority of other clubs We will be following these and other developments as we work to bring ideas to FBYC, and we look forward to safely renewing a full range of activities.

• Tracy Schwarzschild, Commodore
• Elizabeth Staas, Vice Commodore
• Joe Roos, Rear Commodore