Yeah - whilst I voted to remain so am not a "little englander", I do have a healthy dislike for the French. Happy to remain in the UK and use our huge plethora of public slipways - had no idea there were so prevalent and well kept!

My concern for your plan is that if we all do it the club structure will collapse, resulting in no club racing, no open meetings and no championships.  Bit like nomadic sailors who enter competitions as RYA but make no contribution to the infrastructure that they take advantage of.  

Also many clubs are sitting in really nice locations with good access to the water, and if these fail, then the sites will get redeveloped and those stretches of water will be lost forever to the dinghy community.

Good points - having a few beers on the beach or at a nearby pub does not require a sailing club to exist and frankly, I probably prefer drinking outside of most sailing clubs which tend to be rather dead socially. However - I do take your point that being a member helps maintain an infrastructure that we all need for opens and championships to take place. Perhaps under my vision some of these current clubs might transition to being boat storage rather than sailing clubs - people will still need somewhere to keep their boats after all 

Hey Sam - yup suspect I am a minorty but was interested to see if others had the same experience. Its not actually a cost thing for me - much more hedonistic than that, its just about a realisation that life is finite so why spend time doing stuff that we do not enjoy when we could maximise time on what we like doing. Lockdown has shone a light on the fact that I would prefer to spend my time on focused boat tuning, informal racing, opens and championships rather than club racing!

Yes it is but its a faff - if there was a boat park nearby I could just drag the boat there without undercover for example and driving with the boat on the motorway is slow and you have to be more alert etc. 

Because the water is for paying users only and they don't do day packages its not like the typical riff raff you get at a public slipway trying to launch their jetski etc. and because its not a club you don't get any of the typical club crap

Without a club ( by which I mean the people and the racing ) my sailing would decline to level were it would be something I might do on a beach holiday . 

Take a phone in a waterproof case.

In my 470 days, the winter activity was based out of Calshot. But we were based in Warsash, so used to sail the mile or two over, launching from the public slip rather than drive 30 miles. Did it for several years problem, including getting there to be told it was too windy, so we'd sail back. Fog was more dangerous - that big thrashing noise transpiring to be the QE2's pilot boat coming to shoo us out of the way. 

Not many public slipways on the reservoirs we're obliged to sail on in the UK midlands

A lot of my Dutch and German sailing friends aren't club members.  The boat lives on the drive and they go along to class events, training days and open events when it suits them.  As a result they do a lot less sailing than us brits with our club culture, but more class racing and more events.  Looked to be the same in Australia when I was working there; didn't see any boat parks.

You just had to go and spoil it didn’t you ? 

Oh well, such a shame , once a troll always a troll  

I think this gap has been there for a long time, but seems more obvious than ever after a wash-out season. 

Great book that might give you lots of info. 

The Good Launch Guide

I thought your boat for boat race against the 2 Europes and Oppies looked a little unfair, although Steve and Sarah could have given you a run for your money

Wile clubs are very much needed. Would it be so bad if people had to do there own risk assessment 

knowing if it went wrong they were on there own?  

However, to abandon the Club infrastructure does deprive juniors and beginners of your accumulated wisdom. 

On Sunday just gone we had three oppies in our group that were racing with us. They are all pretty good and kids of sailors that you would probably have heard of, but we were teaching the next generation to race too. Sorry to disappoint.

Yeah realistically it was three little fleets - H2s, Europe and Oppies and we set off with a bit of an offset but really we were boat on boat. Agree last Sunday was ideal conditions - the weekend before I was out too in F5 through 7 according to Bramblemet, was less hospitable.

Totally sums up my and my wife’s view of being a member of a club . Unlike me my better half , loves doing opens and nationals but even for her it’s just the icing on the cake . It’s the week on week racing /socialising /banter is the important thing for us and  most people. At my club only about half a dozen people have ever done a open and other than my wife I don’t think any other person has done one in the last decade .

Been sailing many decades and had my fair share of scrapes along the way but never been unlucky enough to need someone to come help. I am happy they are there but I have always sailed with a mindset that I am self sufficient and yes I do know accidents happen but so far I have not needed it.

Edit to add ref. earlier H2.

But were you really teaching the next generation? Maybe youngsters, however children of well known sailors were not the grateful and needful group of complete newcomers I was referring to.

I try to remain non judgemental and make general observations. 

My only disappointment is that I have felt the need to make a personal and rare response. 

I am not sure that the RNLI crews have no issues with call outs for plonkers who have made no effort to mitigate risk.  Most of the crew are volunteers and are on call, and a shout is an interruption to their own activities.  It appears to me that it is wrong to think of a lifeboat in a similar way to a sailing club rescue boat, it really should, in my opinion, be the last resort in a list of risk mitigations.

On my list of mitigations would be, don’t head out to sea in weather where I might capsize, check that none of my kit is going to break (carry essential spares), wear the right kit, sail with a buddy, carry a working VHF, tell somebody what I am doing and where I am sailing.

I could add to this, go out on a Wednesday afternoon ... it is when our lifeboat is out training 

If people want to learn to sail there are plenty of sailing schools available that are desperate for business. Most clubs also charge for RYA courses. I am happy to train the youth of tomorrow and you do not like that you were wrong in your comments. Whatever.

I suspect that the RYA thing is patchy from class to class, but I find it hard to hold such sailors in high esteem.  As stated previously those that decide to opt out of club membership, but reap the benefits of the volunteers who run Opens and Championships are not bringing that much to the game.

Many thanks for completing the picture.

No, they leave that to the coroner if necessary.

I don't have a problem with sailing without cover having mitigated the risk which something I think we will all have done at some point.

I have a large problem with the bit I quoted. It makes the rest of what the posted irrelevant if the initial statement is any part of his decision making process before he goes out.

Sorry, its just an irresponsible thing to say.

Sometimes it's better to hold your post and have people think you are an idiot than it is to type and remove any doubt.

I suggest you stop digging.

WOW 

I will continue to post my own thoughts, if you have issues I would suggest you report them to site moderators, rudeness, clearly demonstrates the 'level' of your character.

In order to participate in competitive sailing you have to be affiliated in some way to the sport's national governing body. So in our case you need to be a member of an affiliated club or the RYA itself.

All sports have this requirement in some form or another.

So as a member of a class that is regulated by the RYA from your statement the requirement is fulfilled. Thanks for the making that clear. 

I do hope I am still allowed my own opinion in the Democratic republic of Brittan. I totally understand it might not be shared or liked much, but hopefully respected as mine, as I respectfully respect its your right to disagree with mine.  

Totally agree 

Interesting point but I think that being measured and managed by the RYA and affiliated to the RYA are not the same thing. I'd be interested to hear input from someone with more knowledge on that point.

(a) a member of a club or other organisation affiliated to a WS MNA

a few years ago a certain Javelin said it was a member of our club for open events, after a few years we eventually wrote to them asking for there membership, funnily they started using another club.