Pay and play

is it?

lets look at the numbers...

say you race/sail an aero 9 for 5 years on that rental scheme thats £6k

now go out and buy one thats £7.5k

insure it over that period is another £900

period membership £1545

5 years of boat parking £895

running costs £250

new sail £500

resale value £4500

total £7090 (conservative costings here and doesn't account for inflation)

i'll take the pay and play please.

Congrats on 42 years - I am coming up on 20 which seemed an achievement till I heard that!! The "hooking up with people" comment was a bit of a joke but I do think that for the younger generation being a member of QM Select may well be a social opportunity to meet like minded people at the weekend in the same way as many of my friends seriously go to the gym to get a date. I am sure this is not the number one reason people join but all too often sailing can be "show up, rig, race and dash home" whereas as a select member you have a better chance of meeting other select members which must be a draw when you are lonely in the capital.

well the option to change to the owner model would always appealing for various reasons, ability to travel/move clubs would be one.

shame they shot it down though, i seriously think the clubs round here could do worse than band together a bit more and come to some consensus on which classes they could each provide on a "gym" basis to help retain the student/young adult demographic. 

They need to either over lap classes and make for larger "river" racing or to make sure they are unique classes for smaller "club" racing.  lasers and solos would be ubiquitous, but fireballs and sprint 15's although having large fleets individually at a couple of clubs are definitely club specific.