IN SEARCH OF PLAN B

WHAT ARE YOUR SAILING PLANS FOR 2021 AND BEYOND? ELAINE BUNTING INVESTIGATES THE OPTIONS FOR SAILING IN AN ERA OF UNCERTAINTY

- ELAINE BUNTING

Every summer, Simon Currin and his wife, Sally, spend six or seven weeks cruising. In 2015, they left Scotland in their Swedish-built CR 480DS and in the summers since they have sailed to the Faeroes, north-east Greenland, Labrador, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia.

When they hauled their boat out in Canada at the end of last year, they thought they’d be back for a leisurely cruise along the eastern seaboard of the US this summer. It never happened, and they’re not sure when they will next be able to get on board their yacht, let alone make longer sailing plans.

“Until the provincial travel restrictions in Nova Scotia are lifted we can’t set foot on our boat,” Currin says.

“We are hoping to get back next June, but with a new six-month semi-official lockdown in the UK I’m becoming more sceptical. Even if we did launch, foreign boats are treated as in transit so we can only sail if we are coming back to the UK.”

Robert Walston’s boat lies closer to home in the UK, but his plan – some two years in the making – to take the winter off and cross the Atlantic to the Caribbean has also had to be shelved.

“I could have gone anyway, but I think our scope to sail round the islands will be too restricted, and it’s all too uncertain. Anyway, my business needs my attention. I’ll think again next year,” he ponders.

Currin and Walston are among many boat owners across the world whose plans are in limbo. Spending holidays on board, or longer, is the whole point of having a yacht. Without that option, what now? Can you really make plans for next year, and what could they be?

‘Can you really make plans for next year?’