I only read this post out of curiosity. Everyone wears a mask? What kind of mask? They have been proven to be non effective unless they are a specific type, and if you have one of those, you are not doing first responders any favors.. How old are you people? Are you inviting smokers? Harry who has RA? Sanitizing your hand rails? Hilarious. You should stay home if you are this concerned. Invite people you know. If they are not taking responsibility for themselves somewhat, why are you inviting them? Have a great time. If you are in the target group, (65 with a cronic disease) then you apply to the above posts. What are you doing? Also it has been proved that UVC, (sun) kills the fat cell on the virus.
Go out and have a great sail and do what you have been doing. I am not trying to hijack the thread. Im going sailing this weekend and was wondering what the starter of this thread would do.
Rick, I'm not sure where you are coming from.
1. Thre are effective cloth masks for the purpose of reducing spray (ie sneezes and coughing) from launching a great distance. Thats the reason for the mask, not to allow you direct contact with someone like a first responder or nurse would be called upon to do. The mask protect them, not you so yes a mask is a good idea. Probably secondary to good "body" control." Why not do what you can to minimize (not eliminate) risk.
2. Who said anything about inviting Harry who has RA or Joe the smoker? I'm talking about sailing with immediate family members and depending on the risk you are willing to take, invited guests. I wouldn't invite Joe the high risk guy to sail nor would I invite Ed the EMT or Suzie the nurse at the ER to go sailing, for my risk reduction, not hers.
3. Who said anything about sanitizing your hand rails? I'm talking about sanitizing the things you immediately touched after boarding from the launch where you probably touched some commonly touched surfaces. How much of that you do is a matter of risk tolerance and your "preexisting conditions." I keep alcohol sanitizer in a small squeeze bottle and, for example, sanitize my credit card after I had to hand it to someone or use it in an ATM. By the way, I'd bet a good bottle of single malt that I've spent more time suiting up and removing gear to prevent cross contamination (from radioactive particles) than most of the members on this board have spent putting on their foul weather gear.
Rick, I'm not at all risk averse. In fact you'd probably say I am a risk taker. Yes, I am in the high risk group - I'm 69 have had 3 heart attacks, had 3 stents, died on the table and had 5 way bypass and I went sailing yesterday!!! AND to boot, I rode on a launch to get to my boat on a mooring. By the way, I have taught Risk Assessment in the nuclear industry so I am well versed on risk and risk reduction. The question that started this was what were the rules you are seeing if your club or marina operates a launch. If I was 21 and back in my "top conditon" shape I'd probably be a lot less conservative but when you have to set "rules for use" like a club might do you defer to a reasonable control set of rules since you don't know the risks of each user of the launch. You have to either take reasonable controls or risk litigation at some time in the future. Believe me, lawyers will be all over this in a few years like flies on a garbage truck.