What would you pay to attend an Open Meeting?

Last weekend I had a choice of 2 events both were for 2 day open meetings.

One was for a singlehander and the entry fee was £31.50 (including harbour dues) and the other was for a double hander and the entry fee was £35.00.

I would usually exopect to pay £15 to £20 for a singlehanded 2 day event and up to £25 for a 2 handed event.

Needless to say with the weather forecast I stayed at home and saved my money.

This is an age old problem.

Having organised events and sailed in lots I think peoples tight fistedness (is that a word) is unbelieveable.

£25 for a 2 day event in a single hander is fantastic value for money ... for that you get organisation of entries, on the water race management & saftey cover, hospitality in the evening, a results service and prizes.

I would have though £50 still represents good value for money.

why are you so tight?

it is not just what you are getting out of the Open Meeting.  It is what the hosting club gets out of it too?  You make your choice and supply and demand will do the rest.  why should a singlehander be so much cheaper?  Bar takings will be less so that needs to be compensated for, and a full race/safety team will still be required.  OK maybe less water used in the showers, but so what.  The club also needs to be prepared for the situation that the weather is poor and the turnout is accordinly low.

finally did the entry fee include anything else eg evening meal or a levy payable to the class association?

hope you enjoyed your club racing instead.

I've been to 2 open meetings this weekend in the British Moths. Frampton on the Saturday cost £6 and included a bacon butty (cheese in my case as I'm veggie) for lunch and a hot supper afterwards Excellent value!

Sunday I was hosting the Moths at Whitefriars. We charged £5 for the day, with a lunch of soup, ploughmans, fruit, home made cake and various other bits and bobs. We broke exactly even in running the event, which was the aim. The club enjoyed having the Moths there, the Moths enjoyed being there, and I enjoyed putting the event on, so there was no need for profit. I was lucky enough to be able to sail, too, as we ran it in conjunction with club racing, so the complete race team for the day were already in place.

So, both events excellent value, with no pretentions of being grand events. A sea event will always cost more because of the extra fuel needed to lay courses and provide rescue cover. I've been to expensive events where the event has been so well run with plenty of added value to make it seem like a holiday for a weekend, and others that just take your money and make you feel unwanted. I vote with my feet in those cases, and don't go back. Luckily, they are less common then the good ones.

How much for a round of golf for 2 people or 3 games of ten pin bowling or 6 hours in the snooker hall etc etc ...

Sailing is very cheap ... if the clubs charged more they could invest in better facilities & youth programmes rather than just breaking even and nothing improving.

A two day open meeting is giving perhaps 8 - 10 hours of entertainment.

Ah but at the Contender Nationals you get 3 socials included in the price. One of which is a championship dinner at a nice hotel. Entry fee was also £105 if you booked early.

Nationals are usually more expensive as it is harder to get volunteers to run them. They often require professional race officers and perhaps safety crews.

I think some open meetings are expensive when compared to what we pay for club membership. I know some clubs use open meeting revenues to help balance the books.

The question really is (as a club committee member) what is value for money and how greedy can a club be?

Our facilities have improved immensely over the years, for juniors and adults. I don't really see this as the point of holding open meetings, though, as unless you really set out to sting your visitors, the amount raised will be a drop in the ocean, and people will start avoiding coming to visit, so rather defeating the exercise.

I think it 'all depends'. Being a Tight Yorkshireman, I do object when I have to pay £30 or more for poor racing (particularly short races over rubbish courses or where the club racing takes precedence). I don't mind paying if the overall experience is good. For instance, Hayling Island are at the expensive end but look what you get for you money - top venue, amazing clubhouse, great race management and rescue, 'standard' glassware prizes. Beer prices are ok but the snack bar charges nearly £1 for a tea and £4 for a sandwich . So its a pleasant suprise when the food in their restaurant is very good value at around £7 - £10 for a quality main course.  

My club is far cheaper at around £12 but we don't even have showers. we do provide very good sailing and cheap quality food though. Even so I reckon Hayling is reasonable value.

Who said anything about stinging visitors ... all I am saying is at the current levels it is very cheap. Clubs run in many different ways and I personally have no problem with an event making a profit if the organisation is not-for-profit which means the sport benefits... how did your club fund it's "immense improvement"?

Brightlingsea SC ran an open just over week ago with entry fees set at £24 for double-handers, £18 for single-handers.  That included harbour dues and an extremely hearty home-cooked evening meal.  Good value I think.

Most people I know would baulk at £50 for an open meeting, and these people are not 'tight'.  They do have a lot of demands on their cash (and time) though, and have to prioritise.  For many people open meetings are not cheap especially by the time you've factored in petrol & accommodation, not to mention running the boat itself.

Mike

my club has done a lot of work lately and it has been funded by membership fees, bar taings, galley takings, profit from running training courses (not much i dont think apart from when they have other organisations using the training room  for a weekend (a couple of weekends in the winter)) dinghy parking, cruiser moorings, tender spaces and 6 opens a year at something like £10-£20 to enter.

As it was pee-ing it down yesterday, we decided to take the kids 10 pin bowling.  For me, the wife, and two kids under 4, cost £16++ for just one game which lasted about 30 mins.

So, in my humble opinion, Open Meetings are good value for money... however it's not the whole picture.  Try adding up the costs of running a boat for a season (don't forget depreciation) then divide by the number of sailing days. 

You might get a bit of a shock!

Paul

I know what you mean but there seem to be other sports/activities that the great british public are happy to hurl cash at, I am trying to figure why sailing is different...?

Maybe i'm strange but i think £35 even for a two day event is very expensive, certainly for an open meeting and not a area or inland champs.

For a two day event if the club plays it's cards right (Unlike a certain very large inland reservoir) the bar takings will easily exceed the entry fees and the people sailing will have enjoyed themselves and feel more inclined to return next year not having realised that they earned the host club a fortune in the process.

I agree with you laser 4000, Broadstairs is definately one of the friendliest places to go and sail. We had a great time when we went there in the 5000 a few years back.Another good Club is Felixstowe ferry great value for money and a friendly atmosphere.

Our club may not be the cheapest but you do get a fantastic venue with great racing and excellent rescue and race organisation.

I'm not sure that it is that different.  There are people who are happy to hurl cash at sailing, and there are people who participate who can't do so.  I suspect that other sports also have this cross-section.  IMHO it's very important not to exclude the latter group, otherwise numbers will dwindle, costs will go up and it'll less fun for almost everybody.

If this thread is turning into a 'great clubs to visit for an event' vote then I'd definitely put Whitstable on the list, it's always been a favourite (and no I'm not just sucking up to Rick ).

Mike

At Whitstable we try hard to put on good events for a resonable fee.

This weekend we hosted MPS & B14.

Racing was cancelled on Saturday so we only charged half the entry fee but we still put on a BBQ and a band on Saturday night.

Single handers were £16 and double £25 which included the BBQ.

Given there was no sailing Saturday people were still full of energy and the bar did well

I think this was great VFM ...

Or you could look at the price of a 505 worlds......errm.

Most of our opens (2 day) are about £25-00, although enterprising clubs will get us to stay there for a curry....!

Arhh gald to see that lottery money is being spent well.....must resist urge to rant...muuussst reeesist!!!

Forking out for entry fees is definitely only a small part of the story when it comes to sailing related exspences.  If you want to spend money sailing is a great pastime when you start paying for all the running costs - insurance, class association membership, club membership, boat storage, boat maintenance, sails.  Then if you traveling to open events there are loads of costs there without factoring in entry fees - accommodation, diesel, food.  If you do an open circuit of 6 events each year, and each event entry costs £50 it quickly mounts up.  It certainly isn't cheap, even compared to golf.

You should have introduced yourself ...

Here is a link for photos

http://www.mustoskiff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=645 - http://www.mustoskiff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=645

Contact Sergei as he took loads more than are shown on this sample gallery.

Hosting an open meeting is a huge risk for the club. If you get lots of entries you can make a profit but if no-one turns up on the day then you are broke. Costs for running a regatta are pretty much constant regardless of the number of entries. And you have to pay the money up front. So you have to make your best guess. We are running three open dinghy even dinghy events this year at Ballyholme. Two are well sponsored and that helps keep entry fees down. We always offer a discount for entries up to a week or so before the event because it helps to bring in the money early enough and give an idea of how many entrants there will be while there's still time to change plans accordingly.

£35/£40 is entirely reasonable for a two day event. If you've trailed your boat 100 miles to get to the event then your fuel costs are going to be more than the entry fee in any case. When the Hurricane Euros come back to Ballyholme this August the English competitors will have to pay many hundreds of pounds to cross the Irish Sea. A good Notice of Race will always give you enough info to help you make your mind up as to whether the event will give enough value to enter.

My top-tip for most open meetings is to give event t-shirts to each competitor. When you buy in bulk they only cost 3 or 4 quid to print up but competitors feel (rightly so) that they are getting something tangible for their money. Plus when everybody wears them there's that sense of camaraderie that gives an event character.

What headgear do you suggest for people with no hair on a sunny day then?

I can just see TT going up the first beat looking like this ...

 The secret of good trapezing: wear a wig called "Tarzan"!

... and so, to sum up. Any sailing club that is offering free wigs as part of it's regatta entry fee can charge whatever it likes and still be beyond reproach. Those sailors likly to be attracted by such an offer include:

1. Donald Trump (GP14)
2. Paul Daniels (Laser Funboat)
3. Bruce Forsythe (18' skiff crewed by Dolly Dealers)
4. Terry Wogan (Foiling Moth)
5. Marie Antionette (Contender)