If you thing that you have a good excuse for not sailing, think of our fellow 505 sailors in Zimbabwe. You will have read or seen pictures of the current volatile situation, and the mob violence that seems to have been directed at small sections of the farming community. However, Kevin O'Connor reports that the small but active 505 fleet is still sailing regularly. Here is a message he recently sent to our International Secretary, Chris Thorne:
Thanks for your concern. Things are fairly tense here at the moment though in town at least we do not seem to be threatened too much. This whole thing has been brought about by the complete collapse of the economy which has put pressure on everyone from the top right down to the bottom. It is important to focus on how all Zimbabweans are suffering under the current economic situation rather than focusing on the racial issues. From a sailing point of view it makes getting new equipment almost impossible. Nevertheless we are hoping to have 8 boats at our Easter regatta, and Ian Pinnell is visiting us the week after Easter. I am sure he is going to be amazed at the antiquated and often home made equipment we use. We do have one very good Rondar in the country which gives us something to aim at. Fortunately we sail in light and variable conditions so boat speed becomes less decisive.A lot of people in Zimbabwe think we are crazy to be driving 200 miles to go sailing when there is trouble in the land. However we feel that if we can’t sail, what are we doing here? We also like to think part of the reason we sail 5o5's is because most people in the class world wide would feel exactly the same way if they were here. We sail these boats because they are fun and competitive in spite of the fact that ours are mostly quite old. If the only 5o5 you had was an old one, you would still sail it.
Regards
Kevin and the Zim Fleet