Remember Murphy’s Law? There are many variations in wording, but for our Club, this one describes this year pretty well: “If something can go wrong, it probably will — and it will do so at the most inopportune time possible.” We say in the About section of our web site that we are “a club of sailing and racing enthusiasts who enjoy spending time together in racing and social events, (and supporting) the main purposes of PPYC, (which) are to promote the sport of sailing, enhance boat handling skills and safety on the water, and promote fellowship and association among its members.” Each year, after several months of cold weather, March rolls around and excitement begins to build about the April kickoff of our Spring to Fall activities — twice-weekly races, several regattas, LATH, educational classes, cookouts, social gatherings, etc. And this year, we scheduled a huge event in July to celebrate our fiftieth year as a club. What a year this will be, we’re thinking! Enter the Coronavirus, stage left, and life as we know it is changed in a way none of us have ever experienced before. As the saga unfolds, we find ourselves entering the second half of our main season with none of our well-laid-out plans having materialized so far.

With that backdrop, let’s take a look at the rest of 2020 and beyond. ... So how are we doing overall? Our Club is financially healthy and quite capable of weathering the remainder of this “storm.” And although our revenues are down, so are our expenses because a lot of our expenses are associated with events that haven’t been happening. Unfortunately, though, revenues from membership fees are down, too, both from renewing members and from new members. There are two ways one could view our membership fees: 1) as a “cover charge” that covers the cost of no-extra-charge events and activities during the year, or 2) as a nominal annual cost of being a part of a group of people with a keen interest in the sport of sailing. A member or prospective member who holds View #1 might logically not renew or join in a year like this one, but a member or prospective member with View #2 would unless the economic situation the pandemic has created — e.g., an interruption in their personal income — has resulted in a need for some trimming of discretionary expenses. Our goal, of course, is to always provide an environment in which every member and prospective member would adopt View #2.

Looking forward, we believe we will be able to resume our activities and events schedule in some form in September. And of course, we look forward to a 2021 in which this whole thing will be in our rearview mirror as we begin activities and events we now have scheduled as a result of a lot of recent planning efforts by several of our Board members. For those of you who hold View #2 regarding membership fees and have not been adversely impacted financially this year, we would appreciate your renewing your membership when that time arrives for you — or if you’ve been thinking about becoming a member, doing so. For those of you who hold View #1, we encourage you to consider View #2.

See you on the lake!