This message was released by Tom Brockett (chairman) on 4th June.
Hi Everyone!
Hope you all are well and not missing the sunshine too much!
We have some good news for you all, the harbour will be reopened for club use as of Monday the 8th of June!
This means that anyone who is a member of the club will be able to go down to the harbour and paddle even outside of the Harbour master’s normal operating hours.
The points I outlined in my last email still stand regarding social distancing and cleaning club equipment etc so even though we are able to go out on the harbour please abide by the rules below. I’ve made some slight amendments to the points and added some more so please make sure to familiarise yourself with these. Any points applying to the cage near the Cottage Inn also apply to the ISO container which contains the Polo Kit:
No organised club trips/meetings
There will still be no organised trips with the club, this includes the Thursday night sessions. We will let you know in a separate email once these sessions can restart, but this won’t be anytime soon.
Always remember to social distance
If you are planning on doing any paddling trips, whether it is with the club kit or your own, and you will be accompanied by someone outside of your house, always remember to stay 2m away from each other. This applies within the cage as well as on the river. Be sensible with how you move about in the cage and touch as little as possible to limit the risk of spread. You are now able to go paddling in groups of up to 6 people.
Do not paddle if you don’t feel confident on the water
If you feel as though you aren’t 100% confident in your ability to get in/out of the water or to paddle in a straight line without wobbling and falling in then please hold off on going out just yet until the club restarts sessions normally.
Borrowing club kit
Club kit may be borrowed from the Cage by the Cottage Inn if you are a Gatekeeper however there are a few rules that need to be followed in order to do so:
- Sanitise any kit borrowed with the sanitiser provided.
- Only 2 people in the Cage at one time. The reason for 2 people is because some of the boats are stored high up and you will require assistance to get the boats down. Do not try and get a ‘difficult to reach’ boat on your own if you are planning a solo paddle. Seeing as we are now all allowed to go paddling in the harbour, there may be a large amount of people turning up at the Cage at once. If this is the case when you arrive, please wait outside the Cage for the people in there to finish getting their kit before you enter (always observing the 2m rule).
- No changing in the Cage. I know this rule is already in place, but if you do need to change, please do so by your car and not in the Cage to limit your exposure to surfaces in the Cage.
Cleaning club equipment
If you do borrow any club kit, please clean it thoroughly before using the kit and once you return it. Please use high % alcohol wipes to clean down the kit to make sure everything is killed off. We will sort out a little stash of cleaning equipment and leave it inside the cage before Monday. You will, however, need to bring your own sanitiser to clean the lock because the cleaning equipment we will provide will be inside the locker.
Polo practice
Rules above apply to polo players wanting to use club polo boats from the ISO Container. However, since polo is a contact sport and until we receive further advice from British Canoeing, the club only recommends contact training between members of the same household. Furthermore, team games will not be organised by the club until further notice.
As Fran has already mentioned in an email, there will be a new gatekeeper code sent out tomorrow so look out for that email in your spam if you are wanting to go out.
Hopefully we will be able to resume some sort of normality within the club at some point, but for the time being please be aware of everything listed above and if you would like any more guidance please go to the British Canoeing website for more information: https://www.britishcanoeing.org.uk/news/2020/update-guidance-for-affiliated-clubs-within-british-canoeing
Thanks everyone! Have fun paddling and stay groovy.
Tom