Interview

A different outlook for sailing in times of the pandemic I decided to interview a friend. She had previously told me that she has been on the sailing team for 2 years and how the team was coping with the new changes in regards to COVID. Because there are many strict regulations for outdoor activities at this time, I asked her how precautions were taken. She said that they only have practice 2 times a week compared to the regular 3 times, masks had to be kept on, and they weren’t able to have a food banquet at the end of the year like usual. I wondered if sailing during this time was tougher and if the competitions still took place. She told me that she would’ve preferred for her last year of sailing to be without all these extra precautions but at least it is something. And she also said that the competitions still took place and everything else besides that was pretty ok. Hearing that most of the activities that took place before the pandemic, still took place made me wonder whether there were any other issues. Like the issues of losing members on the team due to the fear of contacting COVID. She said that there was one member who feared the virus and decided to quit the team, but everyone else that was on the team last year stayed and they even got new members.  I started wondering how the teaching aspect was and I asked her whether anything had changed and whether it was more difficult. She said that sailing is very hands-on and with these regulations they had to stand six feet apart from the coach who was demonstrating. This made it really tough for them to learn and keep up with the senior members of the team.  ​So it seems to me that these times have been rough on us all, but the sailing team is making the best out of it and it looks to me like they had a great season!