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Choosing a club
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jeffers View Drop Down
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    Posted: 05 Feb 09 at 3:30pm

Hi Nessa,

You are pretty close to Hunts being near Cambridge. I pay £140 a year for family membership plus 1 boat. The water is pretty small though (although Phantoms are definitely the boat to have). There is also a guy looking for a Contender so you might want to come and check us out.

Failing that you have Broxbourne. There is a sailing club on the Cam but they do not allow trapeze boats.

As for factors in choosing a club, suitability to the boat you race and friendliness have to be at the top of the list.

Paul
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winging it View Drop Down
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Posts: 3958 		Post Options Post Options   Quote winging it Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 Feb 09 at 4:00pm
Thanks for that Paul.  What is the policy on sailing during the week?  Is there a 2 boat rule, or can you only sail when there is safety cover?

By the way, there is a contender for sale at Paxton Lakes, the other club I am considering. 

Certainly some company for ye olde phantome would be good!

Interestingly, hardly any one has mentioned the cost factor.  I also wondered what people thought about joining fees.
the same, but different...

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Posts: 3169 		Post Options Post Options   Quote Merlinboy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 Feb 09 at 4:59pm
I would love to join Draycote, but the membership is a little to much for me as i don't have the heart to leave the club i have been a member at all my life.  If i were looking for anew club though i would want one that is family friendly (for my daughter and wife) has a good cheap bar and galley and sailing area.  Draycote i think has got it right IMO, when we went up there for some training a few times with the 14, everyone was really friendly (part from fireball fleet, but we did piss them off, so i cant blame them for that) Bacon butty was good value and the bar was awesome.  The only thing that stopped me and Charlie joining was the cost in fuel and membership and the lack of Asymmetric racing.
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Posts: 2415 		Post Options Post Options   Quote Scooby_simon Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 Feb 09 at 5:23pm

Originally posted by winging it

Having just uprooted ourselves from dangerously close to Dunstable to nicely near to Cambridge, we're now having to choose a new home for the fleet.  For the contender the choice seems obvious: it has to be Grafham; a decent stretch of open water and the possibility of training as much as I want thanks to full time safety cover.  But what about the other boats?  At £122 per boat, Grafham is out of the question, so where should they go?

What then, are your priorities in choosing your sailing club?  Friendly people. good open water, the type of boats sailed, competitive racing?

I'm not asking for suggestions for clubs - I pretty much have that sorted, I just wondered what factors influence choice on such things -

 

Grafham IS the bets bit of water around and has rescue cover all week.

 
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BBSCFaithfull View Drop Down
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Posts: 1251 		Post Options Post Options   Quote BBSCFaithfull Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 Feb 09 at 5:29pm
Grafham is an awesome place to sail. However id upgrade my wetsuits if i were you !
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Mikey 14778 View Drop Down
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Posts: 298 		Post Options Post Options   Quote Mikey 14778 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 Feb 09 at 5:51pm
Originally posted by Merlinboy

.. everyone was really friendly (part
from fireball fleet, but we did piss them off, so i cant
blame them for that)
Merlinboy, tell me who was
unfriendly and I'll give 'em a slap. We don't do
unfriendly here, particularly not the Fireballs, we need
all the friends we can get.

Also we'll be putting on asymmetric racing on Saturday
afternoons starting later this month, so maybe you'll
run out of reasons not to sail here

Edited by Mikey 14778
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Merlinboy View Drop Down
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Posts: 3169 		Post Options Post Options   Quote Merlinboy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 Feb 09 at 7:39pm

Originally posted by Mikey 14778

Originally posted by Merlinboy

.. everyone was really friendly (part
from fireball fleet, but we did piss them off, so i cant
blame them for that)
Merlinboy, tell me who was
unfriendly and I'll give 'em a slap. We don't do
unfriendly here, particularly not the Fireballs, we need
all the friends we can get.

Also we'll be putting on asymmetric racing on Saturday
afternoons starting later this month, so maybe you'll
run out of reasons not to sail here

 

I dont know who it was, and to be honest, it was quite funny and didn't bother us in the slightest.  The asymmetric racing on saturdays as suggested to us at the tme but saturday is no good to me as this is the "DIY/family day" and if its not imy wife is working so i have to look after my daughter.  All this aside it still doesnt alter the ammount it cost to join and keep your boat at draycote, which unfortunately i cant afford.  Great club though.
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Rupert View Drop Down
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Posts: 8956 		Post Options Post Options   Quote Rupert Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 Feb 09 at 7:44pm
I certainly put people first. When we moved to near Swindon, we joined one club for a couple of years, but never really got to know too many of the members. We then found that we were sailing a boat with no one close in handicap terms, so had the choice of changing boats or clubs. We chose to change clubs, and had made more friends in a week at the new club than in 2 years at the old.
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les5269 View Drop Down
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Posts: 1530 		Post Options Post Options   Quote les5269 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 Feb 09 at 9:17pm

In the Cambridge area you really only have the 2 clubs mentioned. Grafham (well it's my club) is great. Lovely water and we are friendly if you come and say hello,then Hunts. I've been there a few times though never sailed. It's a smallish piece of water, but they run good racing and seem very friendly.
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Medway Maniac View Drop Down
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Posts: 2788 		Post Options Post Options   Quote Medway Maniac Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 Feb 09 at 9:28pm

I'd go for sailing area first. The other factors pale into insignificance alongside it for me.

I may have been uncannily lucky, but I've never been at a club where people haven't been great, in the main; dinghy sailors are a friendly bunch . At the very big clubs it's maybe been more difficult to meet them as they're often scattered around a huge boat-park full of unused dinghies.

I bizarrely prefer handicap racing to class racing, so classes sailed at a club would never be significant, unless there was no decent h'cap fleet.

Worst club was a concrete bowl reservoir (no names!); I'd never go back there, even for an open, despite the very friendly people, the sailing was just so unappealing.
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