We are probably fairly unique in being a small functioning club (30 odd active members), so we have to temper 'punishment' (?) with risk of losing some members.

The structure is each member is expected to do 4 duties per year, 2 in summer season 2 in winter season, their are members who have never done a duty or attended training on how to do duties.

We do not have any members who are for want of a better description 'unpleasant'.

I have suggested increasing membership dues by £80, £20 per duty, when you do your duty £20 is deducted from your dues, those that don't do duties have to pay the extra £80, members who have to step in have their dues decreased by the £20 non attending member pays.

What do other clubs do ? Does it work ?

I wouldn't think anyone would want to do extra duties, never been a time when  someone hasn't stepped in though.

We do offer the double your subs to not do any duty and we only have one who takes that up out of 120 ish. Maybe that's the way to handle it.

Also a name and shame for those not turning up especially for repeat offenders.

I guess all I can suggest is having some honest debates in the club around what sort of events the club wants to support, and on the back of that how much voluntary effort members are willing to put in. At my club, there seems to have emerged a sort of split of events, where bigger events (like opens and sunday racing) is resourced properly, and smaller events (eg mid week sailing) that are resourced informally.  By informally this can often mean having one of the sailors sounding pursuit racing starting signals then sailing after the fleet once everyone's started !    The finishing order is basically down to scouts honour within the participants.  To an old school guy like me this feels like unbelievable amateurism with some big risks around safety cover, but hey folk seem to accept it as it gets them out of duties. 

We did this for years at my old windsurfing club. With only 5-10 racing it was gate starts and self rescue (windsurfers are pretty self sufficient and the safety RHIB was on hand, and on the water if there was much wind). We even did the same successfully at some open meetings with up to 20 sailors taking part. I don't see it as a question of people 'getting out' of doing duties but a way of allowing everybody to sail/race on the day. For a small number of racers who are not taking it too seriously it seems like an equitable compromise.

In addition we have an informal race series in Jan / Feb / March and if you sail you are asked to sign up for at least one extra duty with social pressure used and name/shame over the clubs facebook used to get people to do duties. Seems to work ok too.

Cruising sailors (in dinghies and keelboats) are also expected to be self sufficient, it's only the racing guys who consider safety cover a near essential. The only real difference is that racers will sail what a crushing sailor may consider unsuitable boats in unsuitable conditions and will push harder thus being more likely to have a breakage.

Really; how is a club supposed to asses how much an individual can afford?

I can't see them doing a full personal financial review.

For the winter series events doing a duty is part of the qualification criteria for the series. If you dont do a duty you get a large scoring penalty and get spoken to by the duty officer if you are not doing your fair share. A duty in the winter is either a morning or an afternoon (so 1 race) and extra races get a reward of average series points.

Reading about the CASC regs here all it says is you cannot refuse membership to someone who doesn't do volunteer so not sure what could be done if someone outright refuses. I would imagine they are unlikely to be made welcome though if people feel they are taking the mickey.

However, the only limit to what you can earn back is "No more than your club fees, including boat berths" ...so, if you did 10 full-day duties, you'd earn yourself £300 :-)

I, generally, do 4 days a year. It's no great shakes to manage that to be honest and I earn £120 for next seasons fees.

https://www.lawinsport.com/topics/features/item/a-guide-to-complying-with-uk-tax-obligations-for-community-and-amateur-sports-clubs

Can you rationalize the number of people required to do duties to a minimum, for instance on a small lake with small fleets noe person could do the Race Officer and Flags Duty, especially if you could incorporate some automation.

In my club, there is a tendency to take on more and more events, but rely on the same pool of volunteers, I would advise against this or risk volunteer fatigue.  In fact I would advise tailoring the number of races to match the available number of volunteers.

Doing duties is an intrinsic part of the sport, you can usually do a duty that suits you, and can be a useful learning process.

Here in rural Oxfordshire, we addressed this by dividing up the duties. If you race, you do race duty or patrol boat, social/swimmers/others get the option of cooking lunch on a Sunday, or doing manual labour at work parties. Outcome? We get pretty much full race teams, superb Sunday lunches and loads of people happy to get wet and muddy on the winter work parties. Plus a few specialist roles. Give members the opportunity to do what they are happy with, and they will generally do it.

I'm happy to be OOD, I love the work parties (got a chainsaw!) and I have done galley in the past