Joining Fees

Originally posted by Noah .... Please enlighten us: Where do you race? What is it about HISC / Chichester Harbour you dislike?

I dislike the tidal nature of Chi Harbour, the bar and shallow water outside.
IMHO Shoreham is much nicer sailing on a good day, but that's not my home club either.
There is nothing I dislike about HISC in itself (apart from being a pain to drive to considering its' actually so close!), I'm just stating that its demographic is not that of the typical 'locals' club and that most of its members are sufficiently affluent that they are unlikely to be put off by the joining fee. As you say thse people are committed and willing to stump up the cost of new aero, which is probably less than the depreciation on a lot of cars anyway. Personally I could afford it if I really wanted to, but TBH I lack the health/youth/fitness/talent to get that much value out of dinghies. One size does not fit all!

Anyone who doesn't fit in with thinking the HISC joining fee is reasonable in the context of HISC has plenty of choice.

From the Fireball Assoc fleet records: http://www.fireballsailing.org.uk/clubs/club_detail.php?club_id=7

The days of 100's of new 'balls being built each year are behind us, sadly. As an example, 15111 is now over 3 years old.

The dearth of L*sers shows more about their fading appeal than anything else. And this is quite apart from the higher numbers of L*sers not far along the coast. Do you have any data on what - if anything - was sold to purchase said Aeros?

If I wanted to race a Solo then why would I go anywhere else? Chances are I would be racing PY rather than fleet, so people go where the fleet is.

The lower than average age - perhaps - of some of the fleets might mean that the owners are a bit more serious / committed than the bulk of the dinghy sailing population.

Please enlighten us: Where do you race? What is it about HISC / Chichester Harbour you dislike?

Originally posted by blueboy Originally posted by RS400atC HISC is not your average sailing club. I know an awful lot of people who sail dinghies in the area, and a few HISC members...... You won't fit in there if you can't afford a new boat every other year anyway. Absolute nonsense.

That's the impression you get as a member of other local clubs.
To some extent it's borne out by a scan of their results.
More shiny new aeros racing than lasers.
A lot of Solo's with fairly new numbers
Average Furball sail no something over 15000 etc.
Etc.
I wasn't intending to be negative about this, it's just the way it is. Some of these people are my friends, equally I know people who race much more expensive things than a new Merlin.
Personally I choose not to be a member there for reasons other than the cost. I don't actually like it as a place to race, and I dislike the drive from here to the club.

There is a significant exception and that's the fair number of members there who are 'in the trade'.

Don't want to pay the joining fee...then go somewhere else.

As it's been mentioned - the fee is part of the clubs revenue stream which otherwise would increase further the current members fees. We've all paid it and isn't an issue, and personally feel like it was a "buy in" to the longer term investment in the club.

We have a joining fee which if you join in the last half of the sailing year is waivered...but to be honest, people still want to join at the beginning of the year and happy to pay it without comment.

And that wouldn't work eithrt because the sample is statistically insignificant