They are maintained by our 'bosuns' who are two brothers.  This is where the problem comes. Trainees and members break boats and the bosuns mend them. That is fine but we have members, one in particular who only use club boats. Said member turns up, takes a Laser, breaks the tiller extension, sails in and nicks an extension of  another club boat and sails off again. He is a nice man but all he pays is his membership. No boat fee (to the the Canals and Rivers Trust) no berthing fee and no insurance. The club maintains the boat he sails, we all maintain our own boats. 

We are a very happy club and wish to keep it that way but we have had to point out to this gentleman that he taketh the piss.

This is my experience. Club boats start off as a good idea but slowly descend into a state of disrepair and neglect never to be used again. 

Better to get people involved through crewing and personal loans. 

We also have a collection of Toppers and Lasers in somewhat less than good racing condition, and which seem to require regular attention.  Whether replacement by new would lessen the maintenance, I don't know.  Their sails not being easily droppable, they tend to be left flapping frustratingly often, so new ones would soon be trashed, unfortunately.

There is also a pair of Feva XLs which seem to be holding up pretty well (this is the only rotomould that I actually like), and a pair of Teras for the littlies.  All bought with grants.

We charge £20 for the Wayfarer and 2k, and £10 per day for the rest.

Maintenance is by a volunteer.  I suggested that people should have to qualify to hire by passing at least a rigging test, but this was not taken up.  It might have saved on some misuse/losses.  

At my old club, people had to pass a combined rigging and sailing test before going on the list of hirers, and each club boat had a bosun who raced it on a regular basis (and repaired it on an equally regular basis).  It was a good system while it lasted (bosuns moved on, etc).

I like the OP's idea of people using their own sails!

I wonder if any clubs have gone for a full on approach to buying decent two man racing boats, such as RS200's or RS400's at a level that might encourage one design participation.

Whilst polyethylene boats have there place in training, I am not sure that they can be taken very serously for racing.

People turn up to Sports Clubs expecting a certain amount of equipment to be supplied, I can't see why this might be different for racing dinghies.

Any experience or thoughts on this?

Our club has only one paid employee.....me. I clean the clubhouse and toilets once a week. For this I am paid a pittance but because I am paid, I do it. Volunteers will often have a casual attitude to responsibility.

Club boats and paid Bosuns could be the answer?

We have club boats at my club owned by the different fleets, they are rarely used. I am very glad my fleet dont have one as it would be a pain to maintain.

We did have some Lasers but these were so badly abused that the club is in the process of selling them (which is a shame IMO but I can understand why).

We also have some Picos, 3 Vagos, a Vision (which is currently for sale) and a L2K. So a nice mix and a little bit of something for most people.

We do have the issue of maintenance with people not reporting things that get broken or are damaged which is frustrating as 99% of the time the broken item is minor and a very easy (and cheap) fix but not one you want to be doing immediately before you run a training course.

My club has a wide variety of boats for hire but I'll do about everything in my power to not need to hire one again. Being a bit more professional about things like having a price list and proper T&Cs would really help.

I like the idea people adopting boats, if they are adopted by particular fleets then they have some interest in them being well maintained so the can use them as a tool to boost their fleet

The adoption scheme is working well with the optimists, but we also have a few plastic oppies which take the brunt of the for hire use.  

Try this for "Personal Loan":-

Core pot of cash ~£6k;    50% Personal Loans, interest-free are available;    repayable over 2-years.

If £6k of loans is repaid over 2-year, the returning income is £3k annually

Try this simplified example:

"P, Q, R & S" buy new-ish lasers @ ~£3k each, so apply for interest free loans of ~£1.5k each and use-up the pot;  [total repayment rate is  £6k/24 = £250 pcm, or averaged £62.50 each per month].

Seeing 2 brand new & 2 very smart Lasers sailing around "T" becomes interested, so after half-a-season the empty pot has now risen to £1.5k and "T" can look at this to support his new boat.

How many Clubs are seeing a turn-around of roughly 1 almost-new Laser every 6-months, or equivalent?

The £6k initially put up, costs the Club, perhaps £1 per day, or the equivalent of a small round of drinks every week-end ...... to see this level of enhanced sailing activity.

Loans could be used for say, upgrading from aluminium to Carbon rigs, or buying a High-Tech sail ..... etc.

One sailing Association which I still belong to, saw such merit in this type of scheme, that they increased the basic 'pot' four-fold, yes £24k !   That was how I bought my first new Fireball in 1982 !

This was done from reserves but could also be done through appeal to members, and then say, matched industrial or other funding.

Maybe there is room for yet another class specifically targeted at this market, not built in polyethylene, but kitted out with decent, robust gear, but with simple systems.  Much though it saddens me the original Laser 1 pretty much hit this brief, but I am not sure about a 2 hander.

NO you couldn't .... Not for personal loans to buy your own kit !

What was advocated was "Loans" for people to buy their own stuff .... and look after it, like they don't look after institutional kit.

There were once some Aluminium Flying-15s built;  these of course have steel keels, so almost satisfy your 'spec'  ,  bottom up to the sheerline anyway.