The start of Bermuda Power Boat Association’s season has been further delayed owing to Covid-19 restrictions.

Robert Cardwell, the BPBA commodore, has confirmed that a decision has been made to cancel tomorrow’s scheduled opening race at Ferry Reach.

“We have officially cancelled racing for this Sunday,” he told The Royal Gazette.

“We still have not had firm approval from the Ministry of National Security. The Premier announced sport moved to Phase 3, but we cannot get an answer as to what this means.

“This has been hard work and we have reached out to the ministry on many occasions and come up empty each time for answers.

Had the association been cleared to race, a less than ideal weather forecast would have likely put paid to any action taking place.

Tomorrow’s weather forecast is for west-northwesterly 12 to 18 knot winds and isolated showers, with one to three foot seas inside the reef and five to eight feet outside.“The second issue is that the weather does not look good for this Sunday,” Cardwell added.

The BPBA’s 2021 season was originally scheduled for nine races from April to September, which would also include the newly added junior programme and jet-ski league.

However, a spike in the number of positive Covid-19 cases on the island led to a government shutdown of sporting activities on the island early last month.

The latest delay has forced the association to shorten the season.

“Sadly, we have had to cancel the first three races of the season because of Covid implications,” Cardwell added.

The global Covid-19 pandemic resulted in the BPBA’s entire 2020 season being cancelled.

Cardwell and his fellow committee members are now keeping their fingers crossed to finally get the delayed season up and running next month.

“Our next scheduled race day shall be Sunday, June 13,” he said.

“We will be working hard to make this day go ahead since we have had to cancel our first three races of the season. Fingers crossed June 13 will be a go without stipulations.”