COVID 19 continues to affect our everyday activities of life, whether home, work, or leisure. Border crossings between Canada and U.S. remain challenging and in flux. It may continue to affect our coming hard water season, but we have plans in place and a decision-making schedule.
The Governing Committee will hold a conference call on November 22, 2021, to decide whether the North American Championship (23 – 29 January 2022) can be held. The decision will be published immediately after the meeting. This allows two months lead time for the regatta, both for the organizers and for those competitors who need to plan international travel.
Suppose the Governing Committee decides that the North American Championship cannot be held. In that case, we will plan to run another US-based Championship during the same period as the scheduled North American Championship. Canadian members might decide to run a Canadian regatta in the same period. A U.S. Championship and a Canadian Championship would be non-ranking events.
Some factors in the decision-making have to do with the risk of a COVID positive test and quarantine requirements before reentering Canada or the United States. Canadians still face some severe logistical and expense problems attending regattas.
If the conditions don’t improve, the North American Championship could not be held. It would fail the most basic measure of fairness to have a championship when it’s too great a burden for international competitors.
Please feel free to engage the Governing Committee if you have further questions. We are committed to offer racing this winter subject to constraints that might be imposed by COVID 19.
