2020 Race Committee Award

One of the silver linings of COVID for SSA last year was also a silver lining for Nell Codner-Jarashow. SSA was faced with the dilemma of providing race committees for those few crews who were anxious to get on the water after a bitter spring of quarantine. Nell, who is high risk, was faced with what her family could do on the water together. The answer: Thursday Night Racing Race Committee.

2020 was the year Nell and Ben's girls, Amelia and Hannah, were to learn to swim, so that they were prepared to hop in an Opti. 2020 was also the year she and Ben were going to get the gear back on their Lightning and get the girls feet wet. As we all know the best laid plans sometimes go awry.

Nell and Barbara Vosbury spoke on the phone about the need for a good Deputy Race officer for TNR and about Nell's reservation about being at the Club and around others. The compromise was that the Codner-Jarashow clan would run the mark boat for as many TNR as they wanted and the girls could join them.So we made it work for both Nell and for the Club. You see, Nell is a consummate volunteer and happens to love doing race committee. This was a win-win and another of the silver linings to be counted from the pandemic.

Nell grew up sailing Beetle Cats on Cape Cod and Ben has been a fixture here on the Chesapeake in big boats. They came to SSA to purchase a J22 and joined our wonderful Club. They never bought the J22 because they found out that twins were on the way but they did stay with SSA!

SSA's Race Committee award is given for outstanding contributions to Racing and Race Committee. The Standing Race Committee overwhelmingly agreed that Nell and her family deserved this award for stepping up during the pandemic and giving the racers great RC work. The award went to the whole family not just Nell and Ben who did the heavy lifting but to Amelia and Hannah also. The girls cheered the racers on, they learned how to use the hand bearing compass', they learned how to use the VHF properly, they were a big help with tending to the anchors and rodes for the marks. It was a family affair!

Barbara