Effect of coronavirus on UK/European sailing?

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dom

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I’m thinking travel plans, do we really want to be stuck in a faraway port treating this pesky bug?

What about its effect on new boat sales and marina prices as the economies face a long and protracted recession, falling house prices, etc.?

What influence will real/contingent travel restrictions exert?

Etc
 
Dom, most of you working City types are probably too shell-shocked by the market crash to be thinking about holidays. o_O
As a retiree in the at risk age group, I am seriously worrying about whether to cancel our planned Easter in the Caribbean, and even our May/June trip to enjoy Resolution in Turkey. Decision s next week. :cry::cry::cry::cry:
 
Things are working out just fine for the Apocalypse industry so anything goes at the moment.

Calling it coronavirus was just brilliant by the ad men. Asian flu just doesn't have the right marketing feel about it.

I'm just glad that I had a few Dettol shares which should at least pay for the antifoul this season.
 
Firstly, I'm surprised that its taken this long for this topic to be directly raised in Scuttlebutt - so well done Dom.

Secondly, having now gone ahead with having my boat lifted out for a month (which could mean the planned re-launch date is delayed for some considerable time?) my personal analysis is this: during an extended peak crisis I'd rather be at home in the village with loads of countryside around me for walks and a garden for the puppy, a well-stocked freezer and larder, home maintenance and garden jobs, my son's stuff all here, fully functioning broadband, a plywood tender to continue building, nearby hills for radio-controlled slope soaring, my voluntary-job to carry out if I can in the local town, etc.

Alternative: stuck (possibly in crap weather) someone on the South Coast on a 27 footer in an Italian-style lockdown??
 
I think my boat will be getting rather more use this season - usually one fortnight aboard, another fortnight overseas.

I can't foresee foreign holidays happening, but rather spend it aboard in the Hebrides...
 
Spectacular timing to go mooching about in a 33' on my behalf. Had I still been narrowboating I would have been heading for the sticks by now. But I know that boat has huge tanks / storage and long term off grid endurance. I am relatively young by the standards of this forum at least but medical access as an itinerant in the UK is notoriously difficult at the best of times. I have private insurance but all bets are off in these circumstances.

A mate of mine built the mothballed pandemic software dispensary system for SARS, which I can only assume is now having the fluff brushed off. Let's hope that works.
 
Resolution said:
Dom, most of you working City types are probably too shell-shocked by the market crash to be thinking about holidays. o_O
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So true!! ?

And as panic breaks out all around, as stocks collapse, bonds skyrocket, gold runs wild, and politicians witter; some might wonder why conventional banking stocks are sinking like anchor chums.

Me, I don't really know why, for the good old banks seem to be operating their tried and tested business model. All beautifully explained here:

 
dom said:
I’m thinking travel plans, do we really want to be stuck in a faraway port treating this pesky bug?
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Here on the Algarve, I don't hear many people in the boat community worrying too much about being stuck as there are few cases so far and the ones tested positive in Portimao seem to a family group who returned from Italy. Most concerns are about travel, with close contact at airports and on planes. The main tourist season starts at Easter and I suspect the spread will increase and the health system here struggles to cope even in normal times, much worse than the UK.
 
I'm supposed to be slowly coast hopping my way from UK to Portugal from late May/early June, I don't know whether I'll be able to set off as early as I'd like but hope still to be able to go. I have a one year sabbatical from work that can't be undone now which was going to be next year but Bozzer & Brexit put the dampers on that plan...
 
Halcyon Yachts said:
We have another yacht setting off on a transatlantic delivery soon. The middle of the Atlantic is probably the best place to be!

Pete
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Not wishing to overdo this, but what if this virus is approaching peak infection rate by then?

I'm thinking, what happens if upon departure one of the crew members is a a non-symptomatic carrier who will inevitably infect the entire crew. With an R0 (level of infectiousness) of between 2 and 3.5, it is odds-on that the entire crew will fall ill.

That might require a mayday call and an evac to a ship with competent medical capabilities.

What would the insurance company say? Not sure I know, but not sure I'd like to find out either.
 
You might like to have a thought for some of us in the thick of it , being told unless your going shopping to stay put on board , normally on a day like to day when the sun shining the marina bussing with people working, chatting to day it's a ghost town , even ourself who normally very socialable are refusing offers to join others for drinks on board .
It's getting quite scary when you think how long this could carry on for ,
It's a really possibility that there may not even be a cruising season this year .
 
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As I understand it from the available data so far, and also from the UK's strategy as explicated by the prime minister in his live TV statement yesterday:

* You're at much increased risk of serious illness/death if you're elderly, already ill (especially with respiratory conditions or immunosuppressed due to cancer treatment, etc), plus now male with high blood pressure (due to something to do with BP medication apparently), whereas you're at much lower risk if you are a healthy younger person etc.

* Most people will get it, most will survive and some will hardly notice it at all, plus it is likely to return year after year. (Whether in the same form, in which case having already survived it you'll be immune, or in a mutated form such as the way flu mutates each year I simply don't know.)

* The primary decision of each country therefore is how to react in the immediate and medium terms. China reacted one way, Italy similarly, other countries with their own methods and restrictions or none at all. In the UK the plan seems to be to allow it to spread but in a relatively controlled manner if possible so that health and other essential services aren't impacted all at once.

In which case, as far as UK sailors are concerned - unless the government changes strategy part way through - I imagine there'll still be plenty enough inshore and coastal sailing going on, but probably with much less eating out and drinking in crowded pubs ashore etc.
 
sailaboutvic said:
You might like to have a thought for some of us in the thick of it , being told unless your going shopping to stay put on board , normally on a day like to day when the sun shining the marina bussing with people working, chatting to day it's a ghost town , even ourself who normally very socialable are refusing offers to join others for drinks on board .
It's getting quite scary when you think how long this could carry on for ,
It's a really possibility that there may not even be a cruising season this year .
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Keep safe Vic. I think there's a good chance you are right about this year's cruising. We booked our return flights to the boat last year but don't think there's much chance of flying on 14th April. The chance of getting health insurance isn't great though EHIC should be functional for this year. Perfectly possible that either UK or Greece will introduce travel restrictions at some point.

It would be risky to just anchor as usual even though isolation is easier for a week or two. I'm 70, on the hyper tension register and have an autoimmune disease so less likely to shrug off an infection. I wouldn't be happy to leave my wife to look after the boat alone. You know that even great anchorages can have their problems. Could be problems finding a safe spot if both of us need to leave the boat at short notice.

Many ifs and buts with little certainty. I'm still preparing to leave on time but that's because I always like a plan B. It may be that Greece is a better option in a month's time. I doubt it but will still be ready to leave and assess the situation carefully.

Pretty good chance you will have an extended stay in a marina this year. Good luck.
 
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