Perfect Sailing Club ideas
Printed From: Yachts and Yachting Online
Category: Dinghy classes
Forum Name: Dinghy development
Forum Discription: The latest moves in the dinghy market
URL: http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=12676
Printed Date: 06 Jul 25 at 3:24pm
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 9.665y - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Perfect Sailing Club ideas
Posted By: pompeysailor
Subject: Perfect Sailing Club ideas
Date Posted: 01 Mar 17 at 8:43pm
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If you could design your perfect sailing club what would it have. (realistic pls!) So far we have the following ideas: * Professional Admin, Bar, Bosun and P/T RO - to keep the club organised and running * Sailors do 2 duties per year - RO, RIB or Bar - its not the end of the world! * Wednesday Evening Racing - for people who cant get out at weekends * Friday Evening Racing- for people who cant get out at weekends * Sunday Racing - 2x Races in the morning - 10:30am & 11:30 - so not a whole day commitment * Facilities / Activities for 'other halves" and Children to WANT to visit the sailing club, but not necessarily sail. * Kids Coaching / Learn to sail * Working alongide a Sailing school that encourages people to join the SC. * Number of exciting club boats to sail - nothing like a modern wayfarer etc. * Great Caterers * Bar open evenings and weekends with Social Events * End of Year Prize Giving / Social * Racing on time * Good beer after racing * Adult coaching * Decent boatpark and launching * Clean and modern changing rooms and showers * Club proactive on social media - promoting and keeping everyone updated ------------- Formerly - OK 2145 Phantom 1437, Blaze 819, Fireball 14668, Mirror 54145 |
Replies:
Posted By: KazRob
Date Posted: 01 Mar 17 at 9:44pm
| Call me old fashioned but cadet/teenage members who get into trouble, raid the canteen/bar, sail amazingly well without trying and generally wind up the oldies up, on and off the water. Different times apparently |
Posted By: 423zero
Date Posted: 01 Mar 17 at 10:14pm
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a club just dedicated to sailing dinghies and people who sail them, no bar no restaurant no shops no creche sailing dinghy related facilities only no dilution of function of clubs purpose "sailing dinghies" no other sports allowed no fish murderers no bird feeders
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Posted By: Rupert
Date Posted: 02 Mar 17 at 8:11am
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No bloody children running around, getting in the way, enjoying themselves, reminding me that I'm an old codger with a sore back and bad knees who's sailing is only getting worse, while they show off and have a good time. And certainly no teenagers sailing too fast on the water and using the club as a dating agency off it.
Oh, and no women, either. Except in the galley, of course. As this is the internet, I had better point out that the above views are meant to reflect the the views of certain factions in sailing clubs who are doing their best to have the sport die with them... ------------- Firefly 2324, Puffin 229, Minisail 3446 Mirror 70686 |
Posted By: RS400atC
Date Posted: 02 Mar 17 at 9:15am
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Sea breezes Waves. Beach. Tractor. Fast boats. A wide range of people. Dinghy park that doesn't look like the Somme. Changing rooms ditto. Bar that might occassionally be rumoured to stay open latish? |
Posted By: turnturtle
Date Posted: 02 Mar 17 at 9:21am
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Proper fleet racing in Aero 9s, D-zeros, OKs, Finns, RS300s (someone else pick one - I'm beyond caring if we all run the same kit) or even Phantoms and 8.1s at a push, racing midweek evenings and Saturday and Dunday mornings - enough take up that 10 boats minimum any time of the year.
Duty buy out options All within an hours commute of my office |
Posted By: Late starter
Date Posted: 02 Mar 17 at 9:51am
| No clubhouse bores whinging about the PY system, subs, or duties |
Posted By: PeterG
Date Posted: 02 Mar 17 at 9:54am
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Good fleet racing ------------- Peter Ex Cont 707 Ex Laser 189635 DY 59 |
Posted By: iGRF
Date Posted: 02 Mar 17 at 10:25am
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Well I'm quite lucky with the two clubs I frequent they are peopled by and large with decent sorts who tend to pull together, clubs are after all people rather than fabric. However the lake club could do with a bar and better club facilities and the sea club could do with a proper slipway.
The kids we train to carry us in our boats shoulder high and walk into the water until we sail off, sadly are not happy to continue and leave year in year out. ------------- https://www.corekite.co.uk/snow-accessories-11-c.asp" rel="nofollow - Snow Equipment Deals https://www.corekite.co.uk" rel="nofollow - New Core Kite website |
Posted By: Chris 249
Date Posted: 02 Mar 17 at 11:09am
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I think I need to have two or three clubs. You can't fit the full range of classes I love into one club without it becoming too diverse to be as much fun as two or three more specialised clubs. It's just more fun in the bar when you sail boats that everyone can relate to a bit, and it's more fun afloat when you are not trying to weave an F18 cat between yachts and Optis using the same marks. Getting clubs located within the same area to be complementary to each other (rather than competitive) seems to be a neglected but quite important facet of the sport. ------------- sailcraftblog.wordpress.com The history and design of the racing dinghy. |
Posted By: MattK
Date Posted: 02 Mar 17 at 11:10am
The sailing centre is Santander is a pretty great club setup that actually exists, indoor boatpark, just pull your rig tension on and go  |
Posted By: Sam.Spoons
Date Posted: 02 Mar 17 at 12:14pm
Still seems to have an infestation of Oppis though 
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Posted By: Oli
Date Posted: 02 Mar 17 at 12:48pm
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amended and added a few...
* Sailors do minimum possible duties per year - ARO, RIB crew * Duty buy out * Wednesday Evening Racing - for people who cant get out at weekends * Friday Evening Racing- for people who cant get out at weekends * Saturday Training / Fun Sailing (not racing) Sunday training & Racing - 2x Races back to back * Facilities / Activities for 'other halves" and Children to WANT to visit the sailing club, but not necessarily sail. * Rowing skiffs and gig, RC Boat racing * Cycle club / Tri events - sail/row/cycle triatlon! * Kids Coaching / Learn to sail * Adult Coaching / Learn to sail * Number of exciting club boats to sail. * Seasonal boat hire for racers to encourange OD fleet Aeros/Zeros/K6 * Great Caterers * Bar open evenings and weekends with Social Events * End of Year Prize Giving / Social * Racing on time * Good beer after racing * Adult coaching * Decent boatpark and launching * Clean and modern changing rooms and showers * Club proactive on social media - promoting and keeping everyone updated ------------- https://skiff-media.teemill.com/" rel="nofollow - T-SHIRTS https://www.photo4me.com/profile/23908/" rel="nofollow - PRINTS |
Posted By: RS400atC
Date Posted: 02 Mar 17 at 3:16pm
A lot of people in the Solent area are members of more than one club. Or at least sail at more than one. Some people race cats at one club and keelboats at another. Some are in a dinghy club mostly for their kids while they keep a yacht at another club. Some race yachts part of the year, dinghies in the winter or a different evening. Some move their sailing to a different club, but still socialise at the old one. Some members of club x have reciprocal rights to race at club y. Some just join a cheap club and blag as much as possible at HISC..... |
Posted By: Sam.Spoons
Date Posted: 02 Mar 17 at 3:34pm
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One common theme emerging there..... people who live by the Solent have far more money than I do  |
Posted By: Rupert
Date Posted: 02 Mar 17 at 3:40pm
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Or would do if they didn't buy all those boats. ------------- Firefly 2324, Puffin 229, Minisail 3446 Mirror 70686 |
Posted By: 423zero
Date Posted: 02 Mar 17 at 5:44pm
forgot a couple  no access by members of the public no dogs lake totally fenced, electrified obviously, keep swimmers away
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Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 02 Mar 17 at 5:52pm
| A gym and an indoor tennis court. |
Posted By: turnturtle
Date Posted: 02 Mar 17 at 5:53pm
swimming pool too... with a yoga / spin studio over looking it and a smoothie bar, with green sh*t in it. No more milky tea with luke warm water from an urn.
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Posted By: JimC
Date Posted: 02 Mar 17 at 5:55pm
| While you're all in wonderland, why not add "sponsored by a gazillionaire so the subs are only £40 a year" |
Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 02 Mar 17 at 6:07pm
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I wasn't really being flippant... David Lloyd manage it and they don't have the beautiful surroundings that most sailing clubs do. Actually, I think the original list covers the most pertinent points. Keep the racing to weekday evenings and Sunday mornings. Spreading racing out over half the weekend is a huge turnoff for me.
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Posted By: winging it
Date Posted: 02 Mar 17 at 6:48pm
Grafham meets pretty much all of these criteria, it's an amazing place to sail, and yet turn out isn't great. Some times I think the bigger the club the less attractive it becomes. The most popular clubs seem to be those housed in little old buildings in poor states of repair with the volunteers doing all the work. It's not the facilities that people join for, it's the feel and atmosphere of the place. I'm a member of Grafham and Hunts. I sail a lot more at Grafham, but I still go to Hunts for my women's group and my casual sailing. ------------- the same, but different... |
Posted By: Noah
Date Posted: 02 Mar 17 at 7:08pm
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During my teenage years (long, long ago), the whole family spent pretty much every weekend of the season at the sailing club. Add in a long weekend extended thru half term based at a sailing venue, and a summer holiday also focussed on sailing somewhere on the south coast and I find it odd to turn up for one race as the return on the time invested in travelling, getting rigged and changed and undoing it all at the end just isn't worth it. Along the same lines I find it difficult to justify dragging the boat out of its comfortable home for a one-day event. ------------- Nick D-Zero 316 |
Posted By: maxibuddah
Date Posted: 02 Mar 17 at 7:30pm
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An inland club with no bloody fish murderers getting in the way. ------------- Everything I say is my opinion, honest |
Posted By: RS400atC
Date Posted: 02 Mar 17 at 7:39pm
Sunday morning racing is OK, but I quite like two races with lunch in between. It's far more sociable. It's worth driving further if you're getting a proper day out. My old club was tidal, which at least rang the changes. One week you might get a morning race both days, next week it might be afternoons. Mornings on the coast can be light wind. It's annoying to have scheduled racing in no wind then do your gardening in a sea breeze. But if that's when the tide is, there's a lot less argument. Whatever you do, it won't suit everyone. |
Posted By: RS400atC
Date Posted: 02 Mar 17 at 7:48pm
One of my clubs, the actual sub is less than that. I suspect a few members put £40 a week over the bar though.... |
Posted By: piglet
Date Posted: 02 Mar 17 at 8:37pm
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[QUOTE=Rupert] No bloody children running around, getting in the way, enjoying themselves, reminding me that I'm an old codger with a sore back and bad knees who's sailing is only getting worse, while they show off and have a good time. And certainly no teenagers sailing too fast on the water and using the club as a dating agency off it.
Oh, and no women, either. Except in the galley, of course. QUOTE]
Thank you, it's been a crap day. |
Posted By: davidyacht
Date Posted: 02 Mar 17 at 9:36pm
WPNSA? ------------- Happily living in the past |
Posted By: andy h
Date Posted: 02 Mar 17 at 10:00pm
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The point made about multiple club membership and people in the Solent having loadsamoney is probably true, but a lot of sea clubs are a bargain compared to big lakes where the water board often take a hefty amount of a club's income. I was a member of Lee on Solent SC for a couple of years alongside my main club Chew Valley. LOSSC was a bargain in comparison. Still trying to remember why I live near Bristol. ------------- Europe AUS53 & FF 3615 National 12 3344, Europe 397 and Mirror 53962 all gone with regret |
Posted By: andy h
Date Posted: 02 Mar 17 at 10:06pm
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I also used to belong to a very affluent club where about two-thirds of the membership were social members. I think social membership actually cost more than sailing membership. The social side subsidized sailing and kept the beer prices down. Miss that club. ------------- Europe AUS53 & FF 3615 National 12 3344, Europe 397 and Mirror 53962 all gone with regret |
Posted By: Sam.Spoons
Date Posted: 02 Mar 17 at 10:45pm
| Presumably the sailing members were't allowed to socialise then? |
Posted By: craiggo
Date Posted: 03 Mar 17 at 12:12am
If you want some tide and cheaper memberships around Bristol, try Thornbury SC, Portishead SC or Clevedon SC. ------------- OK 2129 RS200 411 |
Posted By: transient
Date Posted: 03 Mar 17 at 10:39am
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...a club with a cheese shop would be nice mmm A club that has the freehold is a bit of a bonus. |
Posted By: Sam.Spoons
Date Posted: 03 Mar 17 at 10:51am
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"The Freehold Of Cheese" I might call my next boat that
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Posted By: BruceV
Date Posted: 03 Mar 17 at 11:31am
| saw something like this in Pula, Croatia last year. Seemed a very civilised way of going sailing (Referring to indoor boat park) |
Posted By: Rupert
Date Posted: 03 Mar 17 at 11:40am
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I'd want my indoor boat park to have a somewhat lower roofline. How to achieve that without either taking masts down or having it flood I'm not sure. Maybe lock gates down to a lower level indoor pool with slipway and moorings? ------------- Firefly 2324, Puffin 229, Minisail 3446 Mirror 70686 |
Posted By: RS400atC
Date Posted: 03 Mar 17 at 11:51am
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I suppose you could store fully rigged boats on their sides? Get some special trolleys perhaps. Good for polishing the bottom and attending to the rig? More seriously, it is nice to have space where you can capsize a boat on land. Ideally a nice soft lawn. Often a bit lacking in coastal clubs. |
Posted By: turnturtle
Date Posted: 03 Mar 17 at 11:54am
no thanks - pay a little more and not be subservient to the benefactor.
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Posted By: GarethT
Date Posted: 03 Mar 17 at 12:10pm
I think you've just highlighted the difference between being a member of a club and the customer of a business. Some people want to be part of a community, whilst others want to just pay their money to turn up and sail (plus a whole spectrum in between) |
Posted By: Chris 249
Date Posted: 03 Mar 17 at 12:17pm
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My brother's club has; Two or three bars, open about 12+ hours per day, every day. No duties Professional (I think) or volunteer RC Free boat storage Free BBQs, although you may have to buy the beer at cheap prices Nice grassed rigging areas Big car carpark Clean and modern changing rooms (if I recall correctly) Fast boats Activities for some other halves A couple of types of full catering, about 12 hours per day, 7 days a week A stretch of flat water about 20m x 2-3m straight off the rigging area. Cheap loans for some boats Arranged sponsorship for some boats About 125 pounds prize money for a weekly personal handicap win, IIRC, plus cash for places. About 125 pounds prize money for a weekly line honours win, IIRC, plus cash for places. About 25 pounds paid every time a boat in the main class finishes a weekend race And they pay your national association fees. Oh, and subsidise your regatta costs Membership is......free to boat owners and volunteers, about 40 pounds for crew. It's not sponsored by a gazillionaire, but by lots of OAPs and locals throwing money into the one armed bandits and bars. Not my scene, but it has advantages. ------------- sailcraftblog.wordpress.com The history and design of the racing dinghy. |
Posted By: Oli
Date Posted: 03 Mar 17 at 12:32pm
no not a fan of it funnily enough. despite my wish for a club to offer all of the above, actually on the volunteer front i wouldn't opt out in most cases, its more that i wish some others would, and certainly leave the running of it to pros that leaves out the politicking of others.... ------------- https://skiff-media.teemill.com/" rel="nofollow - T-SHIRTS https://www.photo4me.com/profile/23908/" rel="nofollow - PRINTS |
Posted By: transient
Date Posted: 03 Mar 17 at 12:44pm
There's a club just down the road from us that has an indoor boat park with a lowish roof, dismast to park the boat.........It's no wonder that a lot of them sail Lasers, bit of a nuisance otherwise. |
Posted By: RS400atC
Date Posted: 03 Mar 17 at 1:11pm
Bristol Corinthian used to keep Ents and Merlins indoors. You get organised eventually. |
Posted By: sargesail
Date Posted: 03 Mar 17 at 1:16pm
Or their life style choices including where they choose to live dictates that they will dispose of more of their income on sailing!
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Posted By: patj
Date Posted: 03 Mar 17 at 1:19pm
| Add to the wishlist - on site camping/campervan space in a quiet field with a nice view and electric hook-ups and no screeching kids! |
Posted By: turnturtle
Date Posted: 03 Mar 17 at 1:36pm
indeed - if I had to pick one part of this country I'd choose to live in - all other factors mitigated courtesy of that genuine dead uncle billionaire from Nigeria - it would probably be Kent. Access to civilisation via the M20 into London or Gatwick into anywhere else. Coastal sailing for anything N-SWly, inland for winter sailing Damn close to the tunnel to drive to the Alps for the weekend..... locals are a bit weird though, the short ones anyway
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Posted By: iGRF
Date Posted: 03 Mar 17 at 2:40pm
Kent is indeed an excellent county for all the reasons noted, unfortunately of late the rest of the world appears to have spotted it and DFL's (Down from Lunnon) are driving the price of property through the bloody roof. It's getting Sandbanks stupid in some spots and our roads and general overcrowding thanks to 'developers' cashing in on the profits housebuilding down here offers. There are two thousand houses going up within a two mile radius of where I live, with a further two- three hundred around the lake where I sail. There are fourteen thousand scheduled to a 'new town' between here and Ashford and literally every plot of land has an application for planning either in process or recently passed. The Entire seafront is slated for housing development almost the entire length of the Shepway coast and the North Coast is already priced out of most locals purses. So Kent was an excellent spot but I'm sorry to say not for much longer, personally I'm looking at Norfolk the communication between it and the rest of the UK is sufficiently sluggish to deter commuters and there's not a lot of industrialisation up there, it is also the place with the closest weather pattern to us in the dry and sunny South East. ------------- https://www.corekite.co.uk/snow-accessories-11-c.asp" rel="nofollow - Snow Equipment Deals https://www.corekite.co.uk" rel="nofollow - New Core Kite website |
Posted By: Pierre
Date Posted: 03 Mar 17 at 2:47pm
Smug b*stard
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Posted By: turnturtle
Date Posted: 03 Mar 17 at 2:48pm
| they might be telling you it's housing .... rumour on the grapevine is it's barracks needed for the post-Brexit border army. |
Posted By: getafix
Date Posted: 03 Mar 17 at 3:07pm
or a) we chose to live there because we quickly reasoned that our money would go further leaving more of it for indulging a passion in boat tinkering and racing, and b) we like to spend a day or two every few months in small metal tubes under London, jammed in with thousands of other people who look thoroughly bored/miserable, just to remind ourslves why we moved to the Solent area again |
Posted By: getafix
Date Posted: 03 Mar 17 at 3:13pm
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BTW my ideal club has these 5 'essential' things 1. has tidal waters combining river/estuary with a nice big open patch but always has enough water for 2-3 races each Sunday starting at say 10am and finishing about 2-3pm. 2. has no trees, hills, sky-scrapers or other crap on shore messing up the breeze 3. has a sandy beach and a nice gently sloping slipway with ample pontoons for the club rescue and committee boat as well as the racers 4. has a decent bar with a galley and nice changing rooms with showers that work and ample benches, clothes hanging spaces and a drying room which can be locked overnight so people can leave their kit in there to dry overnight during 2 day opens 5. has 2 day open meetings so people can come with their families and friends and enjoy it even if they live too far away to come every weekend - otherwise what's the point of creating the 'perfect sailing club' ? last but by no means least - in extreme light winds, a system to generate a nice F3 SW would be very welcome !! |
Posted By: Sam.Spoons
Date Posted: 03 Mar 17 at 3:47pm
Depends where you lived before, the Solent coast is only cheap compared to Londonium.
Another of the reasons I don't live in London.
Anyway I stand by my original statement, if you have a keelboat at one club, a dinghy at another, and a house on the Solent coast you have substantially more disposable than I do. Not that I'm complaining mind you, I like living where I do and I have a caravan on the coast which costs me about the same as the annual subs for my local Golf Club). Chuck in a couple of cheap boats and I'm a happy bunny.
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Posted By: iGRF
Date Posted: 03 Mar 17 at 4:09pm
Ha we've had them ensconced here for some time but no quite ironically the developments are largely taking place on former barracks. Large tracts of army land having been released to Wimpey et al. ------------- https://www.corekite.co.uk/snow-accessories-11-c.asp" rel="nofollow - Snow Equipment Deals https://www.corekite.co.uk" rel="nofollow - New Core Kite website |
Posted By: turnturtle
Date Posted: 03 Mar 17 at 4:30pm
rightly so, nothing like a good public sell off and land grab by the corporate building sector!!!
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Posted By: 423zero
Date Posted: 03 Mar 17 at 5:37pm
| a 1000 acre indoor pool, with fans providing variable wind strengths, constant temperature, warm water |
Posted By: Sam.Spoons
Date Posted: 03 Mar 17 at 5:50pm
Just a big version of this then https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UefKs2FSJBk" rel="nofollow - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UefKs2FSJBk
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Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 03 Mar 17 at 5:58pm
I couldn't wait to get away from the north Kent coast when I was 18. Now 40, I still don't yearn to return...
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Posted By: Do Different
Date Posted: 03 Mar 17 at 6:28pm
| Apart from an occasional foray to East Anglia, anywhere North. Yorkshire upwards, less traffic, real weather, I laugh at the Alps when you have the Lakes or the Highlands within reach. Why would you want to fly from London airports when you have much cheaper parking at Manchester and Emirates flying from Newcastle. Largs has it all, great water and scenery in spades. |
Posted By: RS400atC
Date Posted: 03 Mar 17 at 7:25pm
I used to regularly sail on 3 boats, one of which I owned. Don't need a caravan on the coast. Haven't got time for another sport like golf. Wages in the Solent area are actually lower than the Midlands in some fields, certainly generally lower than M4 corridor or Cambridge in my field. Nice houses can be expensive, but there are some perfectly OK places within cycling distance of Chichester Harbour or Southampton Water which are no more than the national average. And there's always Gosport.... A lot of Solent area clubs have people running small yachts on a modest budget. Maybe that's part of our club culture and a big difference from inland attitudes. We also have clubs with several generations of some families and people in their 50s who joined as Cadets and have always paid their sub ever since. It's not all ideal but it damps out the peaks and troughs I think. |
Posted By: Sam.Spoons
Date Posted: 03 Mar 17 at 8:53pm
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I'm wouldn't contest your points, my original comment was a touch flippant (as that's how I took the nature of the thread to be). However I don't live on the south coast from choice, my sister does (well, a couple of miles inland from Barton on Sea), she's not well off but there's definitely more money around her village than mine. The point is that she has built a life in Hampshire, mine is in Manchester. I would like the choice of sailing opportunities living by the Solent would offer but life in the North has compensations too. Oh and I don't play G@lf (heaven forfend) it was just a price comparison
 . |
Posted By: Chris 249
Date Posted: 03 Mar 17 at 9:46pm
Not really..... it's not my club and I wouldn't want it to be, which is why I said it's not my scene. In fact I think it says something that many people who could join a club like that choose not to. ------------- sailcraftblog.wordpress.com The history and design of the racing dinghy. |
Posted By: blueboy
Date Posted: 04 Mar 17 at 6:12am
Some e.g. some belong to a mainland and an IoW club. I'm not sure about "a lot" and I've been sailing in the area for 30+ years. |
Posted By: blueboy
Date Posted: 04 Mar 17 at 6:15am
That would be HISC then. OK, no Friday evening racing. |