Following the partial lifting of Government restrictions on social distancing, the Club Launch and Recovery Team and Exec considered at length how we could comply with the revised rules. It was agreed that we should not go ahead until we had undertaken a successful test launch to establish if we could achieve social distancing using the Club L&R equipment.
Working methodically, and with a key member acting as a social distance monitor, we were able to define a revised process using the now permitted group of 6 people outdoors to work as a team to launch each boat. This applied equally to our ability to rig the L&R equipment as well as handle the boats. It was also plain that we could no longer use the club ‘jolly boat’ and members had to take their own tenders to their mooring.
Taking longer
Without doubt the new process is longer and involves more detailed monitoring, otherwise social distancing could lapse when individuals are undertaking a task. Equally, everything stopped, and URYC members had to stand back, when members of the public walked by. As a group outdoor meeting this proved to be highly successful principally because our L&R equipment is big enough to allow all participants to stay more than 2 m apart and was handled exclusively by members wearing gloves.
This, combined with the hot sunny weather and the significant gaps in time between boats being raised or lowered on chain winches, we were also extremely confident surface contamination was not an issue.
In the past we have achieved 12 launches in one tide, though more reasonably we tended to launch 6 boats per session. For our revised social distancing compliant process we are looking at a maximum of 4 boats per launch day.
Lists
We cannot use the traditional lists posted in the clubhouse, therefore we are using this page within our website to list the boats and launch days they have been allocated. For confidentiality this web page is password protected and a separate email will be sent to members containing this password when its goes live.
Please click on the link above, or copy and paste this link into your browser:
https://upriver.org.uk/sailing/sailing-cruisers/moorings/cruiser-launch-list-2020/