Pay and play

1) It is not whether you can find a latent market for 'Pay N Play' .. that might exist or it might not.  2) But can you find anybody prepared to invest in the setup ?  Risk capital does not grow on trees and this one really would look mighty risky.

Answer to 1) ... Likely to be (very) limited indeed

Answer to 2)  .... Frankly NO !  as in 'not any time soon or never'

You can speculate that the market is there or might change in the future all you like .. or put up your own money when you find others are reluctant to stump up the money ....

Thought about it ?  Take your time ....  OK maybe not then.....

My first reaction was it's ridiculously expensive, but then you do, as you say, have to factor in that it's on the outskirts of London, so prices are high, options to sail without a long drive are poor, and yoofs with disposable income are present in large numbers.

So, yes, on one level it's a viable deal. But, and it's a big but, where it fails is that they don't have Aeros. They have lots of Picos, a few Lasers, and generally the a fleet that looks like a large club training fleet. No idea what condition the boats are in, but I don't mind guessing that you could pick up an equivalent Laser for £1000. If you want pay and play with boats like newish Aeros and a large staff making sure they are in the condition you would like your boat to be in when you come to sail, and enough boats that you can sail on the best days when everyone else wants to, then you are going to pay more - MUCH more. And if you want to try your hand in something tricky and vulnerable like a Musto or a foiling Moth, then the prices will rack up again.

I'm not saying it wouldn't work for some, and compared to a London gym membership I'd rather be sailing on QM than sweating in a gym, but as a replacement for the sort of sailing that most people here want it's got a very long way to go.

well the option to change to the owner model would always appealing for various reasons, ability to travel/move clubs would be one.

shame they shot it down though, i seriously think the clubs round here could do worse than band together a bit more and come to some consensus on which classes they could each provide on a "gym" basis to help retain the student/young adult demographic. 

They need to either over lap classes and make for larger "river" racing or to make sure they are unique classes for smaller "club" racing.  lasers and solos would be ubiquitous, but fireballs and sprint 15's although having large fleets individually at a couple of clubs are definitely club specific.