The AMYA Board met in a Special Meeting Thursday April 3, about and solely about the Corona Virus COVID-19 pandemic. Participating in that meeting was a medical doctor with a background in epidemiology, and who has been advising the AMYA Officers for the last month or so regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. Radio sailing is a social event. AMYA Members and participants are generally 60 years of age or older. If infected, older people are more likely to become seriously ill or die. There is no specific treatment for COVID-19 infection once one gets the disease. So every effort must be made to prevent being infected, thus the USA and State, as well as local authorities’ rationale for Strict Social Separation.
Model sailing as a group is simply not worth the risk to our Members, in the mind of your Officers and Board of Directors.
The AMYA Board unanimously decided to take the following actions:
1) All AMYA-sanctioned events are to be cancelled or postponed until at least July 1, 2020. This includes all Regional and National Championship regattas.
2) All forms of “advertising” by the AMYA, for ALL sailing activity of every type have been removed, and will not appear for the months of April, May, and June 2020. The forms of advertising that the AMYA provides are the AMYA website’s Regatta Calendar, the AMYA Model Yachting magazine, and the e-mailed AMYA Bulletin.
3) The AMYA cannot ORDER local clubs to take any action. That is the role of local Club leaders. We recommend that all local Clubs consult with and follow the recommendations of their local Boards of Health, County, Municipal, and State recommendations concerning Club activities. Please do not try to find ways around social separation- consider the safety of your Members.
As we go forward, the above actions and recommendations will be reviewed by the Board, with the idea of providing any changes in time for regatta hosts, managers, and Classes to make changes and/or further postpone if that becomes necessary.
Mike Wyatt
AMYA President
RCMSC 