big pico please

One problem I've noticed with teaching people to sail in root boats is that they learn very quickly that they do bounce, and treat them accordingly. The problem occurs when they move in to GRP boats and don't know how to look after them/handle them correctly (ie not to drop the, bump them, ram them etc).

Education (and a clip round the ear) is the answer.

The problems occur when the boats are hired for general sailing and racing, not under the watchful eye of an instructor.  I've had another bad day trying to sort out hirers with bits of boat that fit together and work, with stuff left lying all over the place.  I'm starting to think hiring out lasers is just a bad idea altogether.  Let them buy their own!

I think most clubs who own boats have similar issues. We have a fleet of toppers as well as a fleet of Wayfarers, GPs and Wanderers for sail training which are also available for hire by members. It has become more and more frustrating to see them routinely sailed up our concrete slipway, often with the foils down! As mentioned, when they are being instructed they generally use a bit of common sense but once they have completed their L2 they seem to lose any inteligence they may have had, including not even being able to tell where the wind is coming from. The idea of hiring the boats out was supposed to encourage new members fresh out of training schemes into club racing and then hopefully they'd buy their own boats within a year. We are starting to see some members still using and abusing club boats 3yrs later and thats what really annoys.
On the flip side its almost as annoying to see people buying good boats and then totally destroying them, but there are plenty of people out there who just dont seem to care. It amazes me that people will spend several thousand pounds and then smash it to pieces but perhaps thats just an output of our throw-away culture, or maybe its normal and its just my scottishness that hates seeing money wasted?

Originally posted by craiggo I think most clubs who own boats have similar issues.

I've had this discussion: that it may be easier to find the money to buy club boats than to find the volunteer labour to maintain them. Of course if one outsources the maintenance to professionals the volunteer problem goes away but one gets into a whole new level of expenditure.

Personally I have no problem with people using club boats indefinitely provided they are paying a hire rate that fully reflects the overheads. If on the other hand they are effectively having their boat hire subsidised by volunteers then the volunteers may wish to have the subsidy time limited or otherwise restricted.

Edited by JimC - 13 Oct 13 at 10:39pm

Our hire rates are very cheap - almost just a way of controlling the acces to the boats, really, when compared to the cost of a new boat. I know there is a large faction in the club who feels that we shouldn't have any at all. However, they also get used for coaching sessions, so they would have to be there anyway. However, it does involve keen people putting much time into keeping them up together. I did it for a while, but got fed up with it, and passed it on.

The alternative would be to charge the kind of rates professional centres do, but I think they would be used not at all, as opposed to not very much.

The Hartley 12 looked very, very ugly when I saw it at the Dinghy Show, but maybe there is a practical boat under there. I'll have to take aother look.