River Sailing

River sailing is a pleasure (well most of the time), thankfully there are plenty of great boats developed from the British love of sailing up and down rivers; National 12's, Merlins, Enterprise all great, plus the X0/X1.

Duties can also function to re-activate members who have become dormant.  Visiting the club once more, they remember what they've been missing.

Another disadvantage is that you are effectively dividing the club into those who contribute and those who don't, and the club will be at risk of being run solely by those who do, which is not healthy.

sounds like a sensible club Roger!

I couldn't agree more with Kneewrecker. Taking part in duties is a great idea and I really don't mind getting involved. However, pressures at certain phases of your life mean that you just can't dedicate time to that and would rather buy your way out.

I'm involved with growing a start-up company and my chosen sailing location was on the coast 1.5hrs away from me. In the end I wasn't using the boat, but still travelling down to fulfil a duty. Had to choose between family, work and sanity and gave the membership up and sold the boat.

The locality of it all really appeals to me at the minute. I like the idea of using the river that's on my doorstep. It will mean changing my expectations of a day on the water, but going by some of the comments here its going to a different sort of fun. Personally, I think that's exciting me enough to start looking for another boat.