VRC Racing | Polar Bear Series

All Polar Bear competitors departing from Vancouver Rowing Club moorage must familiarize themselves with the Rowing Flow Pattern illustrated on the linked document: https://vrcracing.ca/wp-content/uploads/Course-Map-Current-2020-10-15.pdf. A reminder that you must have a lookout sighting and communicating the position of rowers when departing the VRC docks.

Polar Bear Skippers,

Due the increasing spread of COVID-19 during this latest wave of the pandemic, VRC is postponing the start of the 2022 Winter Polar Bear Series until January 23rd. All subsequent dates are advanced two weeks, ending with the fifth date of the series pushed to Sunday March 20th, 2022.

This notice has been emailed to registered Skippers as well as posted to the VRC Polar Bear web page and to the VRC Racing Facebook group.

Jennifer Ross, VRC Racing Officer

Hi Skippers,

We will be making the announcement about whether we are going ahead with the next Polar Bear date by the end of day tomorrow.

Covid-19 is still spreading at a high rate, even in our sailing community. However, Dr. Bonnie Henry has resisted creating any new orders, instead downloading the risk to each company or organization. Dr. Henry has encouraged sports to continue, specifically scheduled league play, which is a fair description of our series, if we map it on the sports guidance terms. Today or tomorrow, Dr. Bonnie Henry may be issuing new orders or extending the existing orders that end tomorrow. We want to have all the information available before we make our decision.

At the same time, we are asking our RC volunteers if they are able to come out on Race Committee this weekend, understanding the risk of gathering even in small groups.

If we do go forward with our race, I wish to remind everyone to check with their crews about symptoms. Given the size of our event, the statistics for a transmission-free day on the water are probably not in our favour.

This Notice was also sent to skippers as an email message.

Jennifer Ross
VRC Racing Officer

January 23 – Polar Bear Race(s) are a go!

We have a race committee and there was no change in the Sports guidance today, so we’re going to be going ahead with this weekend’s Polar Bear race(s).

Please remember the COVID-19 safety best practices and ensure that you and your crew understand the risks involved with gathering in groups at this time of higher virus spread.

Note that due to PHO COVID-19 Guidance, there will be no official post-race gathering at the bar. Post-race reading of results will be virtual on Sunday, most likely via video on Facebook on the https://facebook.com/VRCRace page after the RC has returned to the dock and put away the equipment. Time TBD.

A version of this message has also been emailed to registered skippers.

VRC Polar Bear Div 1 racers: Division 1 has been split into two divisions: Division 0 and Division 1:

As Division 1 has grown to 17 boats, we have split the divisions between those at PHRF 59 and under and PHRF 60 to PHRF 99. This change is documented in the NOR Amendment #3 available above.

We have retroactively applied this change to the Fall Series Scoring, with no relative scoring changes between boats. This will simplify the calculation of Overall awards following the conclusion of the Winter Series.