Bewl Valley

Originally posted by Peaky Originally posted by maxibuddah I think you'll find within a year or so an exclusive development of luxury lakeside apartments springing up with a country club at the heart. They may be water sports but it will be along a commercial line run from the country club. Is it wrong that I like the sound of that?

Nope - think of all Lycra clad MILFs off for hot stone massages.... Not to mention the pirate themed soft play centre for the kids, that should encourage them onto the water more than tacking drills and having Fuller types school them in the Lee Bow effect

Edited by kneewrecker - 26 Jun 15 at 8:30am

True - it's definitely a way of making a price hike seem more tolerable among loyal customers.  But it also helps create a value judgement in a market which frankly is off key in terms of other costs from other sectors.... I mean £4 a week could be slashed from most shopping trolleys with a little forethought, it's the cost of a pint in the location we're discussing and in reality it's far more likely that the two Teras could be sold and Mirror replace them, or maybe a beater 420 might actually be just as much fun, if not more, than a 5 grand 29er.  

Edited by kneewrecker - 26 Jun 15 at 9:23am

I heard the whole backstory last night from a chap who like Bewl followed the commercial sailing centre guidelines and lost his shirt in the process. It was a conscious decision to turn the club into a business, with staff and even a marketing person, the business model failed as a lot of them do trying to monetise that which has traditionally always been a not for profit operation, had it not been a commercial operation I'm sure there would be more sympathy from the members that deserted or even those that hung on to the last watching the excesses from the sidelines.

I can just see Martin taking on an additional 160 grand a year in overheads to do not much more than he can do already by mail order.. His model works precisely because it is the only completely vertical model in the business and he learned to do that from us. (Former owners of Racing Sailboats my then partner and the windsurfing structured business being the 'us').

Edited by Woodburner - 26 Jun 15 at 10:02am

What's a vertical model?
RS maybe don't have much trouble selling boats (?), but this way they could flog them on at three years old for, what, 60%. Gets boats out there in an affordable way.