Yacht Clubs

[HERSH]

How many of you guys belong to a yacht club?
How is membership holding up?

Here, on the Hudson River and Long Island Sound, membership slipping for many years now.

Any tips on how to increase membership?

There are various web pages are out there on how this problem is not just regional, but national.

Hershey

 

[shnool]

I'm a member of a sail club, think yacht club without the clubhouse... membership is steady, attendance at races is down... Ours seems to have nothing for the families..

 

[sinnettc]

Until this fall ours has been like Shnool's. No clubhouse and mostly racers. There are a few of us cruisers but not a lot. Someone has donated use of a building for a club house but Deborah and I haven't been there yet.

There is another "real" YC at the lake but I can't see spending the bux as we're more solitary sailors than party animals. Maybe if I was a racer I'd feel different about it.

As for what you can do, that's a question that seems to be about sailing in general. It's seen as a rich man's sport (god knows I'm not rich). Reach out to the local community; we do a sailing day for the big brother/big sister program every spring. Have an open house at your docks, showcase the different types of affordable boats and give free rides. Do you have a youth sailing program? Either way, maybe connect with your local parks & rec department and collaborate on building one.

 

[Kunzig]

It is sad, a true yacht club needs big bucks to work like it should. But really what keeps a yacht club alive, old money and ego. Everyone wanting to fit in... keeping up with the Jones etc.

Kinda why I don't feel right and if my dream came true and I found the perfect 28 footer... it wouldn't be right. Many of those doing this sailing thing here are the YC connected. It is a click, where I don't want to fit in. So as I dream forward into the future, I don't see it.

It would be perfect to have a 22' club... that keeps most in the same financial position and builds a healthy community.

So time to build a club with 20' to 24' size births... three or four guys that love to tinker, buying used boats, fixing them up and selling them to new club members.
I'm so there. But it doesn't fit here

Rob

 

[jepomer]

I belong to a yacht club in the Boston area - Cottage Park in Winthrop. It has been in operation since 1902. It's not at full membership, but it is close.

It is an active club with a strong sailing presence. They run a Wednesday Evening series and cooperate with a few other clubs to have "Rumbles". They run PHRF and One Design regattas. That is how we got to know the members and join.

It is a very family friendly organization and makes a point of being a good community member. We just finished the fall Marina Weekend to get the facility set for the winter months. Sunday, the hardy folks start the Frostbite Season. There are three classes racing Sunday afternoons - Rhodes 19, Inter Clubs, and Lasers competing in about 6 short course races.

 

[HERSH]

Thanks for the feedback;

Chelsea Yacht Club is over 130 years old.

We kind of have shot ourselves in the foot, I think. We have about 175 members.

Membership $450/year but after 25 years, free ( Life member) One problem is the life members ( me included) have become a large contingent in the club.

Initiation fee, $725 +-

Membership fees are waived for officers, and we have quite a few. Never heard of this with any other club.

We do have other sources of income Mooring fees $14/ft. Hauling and storage $14/ft. ,,,,,,,

Being a working club we have to put hours in maintaining the club. ( House, grounds, equipment) Again, this is on a sliding scale 28 hrs/year for new members 0 for life members. ( I have put in about 40 hrs this year though.)

Family friendly -- yes -- no cash bar and only serve wine or beer at social functions.
Large youth sail with two summer sessions.

Have a reputation as a sailing club. 99% sailboats. But I think they are hoping to change that.

Many racing functions from Wednesdays beer can, Sunday series, and special races & regattas.

Great clubhouse and grounds.

http://www.chelseayacht.org

Hershey

 

[shnool]

Our sail club actually isn't all about races.
We offer a Sadie Hawkins race, where the skipper must be a female...
We have 3 dinners hosted by the club all season...
2 charity races where there are huge parties with live music and such.
2 raft-ups on the lake overnight.
Memorial day raft-up, and July 4th sailboat parade and Raft up... These "family" functions are more social functions... but they are quite nice.

My complaint was more that there isn't more incentive for kids. In the club's defense though, there aren't a lot of kids of members (most are grown).

Our sail club is a bargain, costing us less than a full tank of gas per year (top that!)...

I think membership is stable, but race attendance is down mostly because of unemployment/underemployment, and price of fuel. There is little to no industry near the lake, so anyone working and a member, drives a decent distance to sail with us (average club member drives about 30 minutes).

We are also landlocked, and on a lake that isn't the greatest lake to sail... it's narrow, and long, and between two hills (making for shifty winds)... the lake is also one of a very few lakes with unlimited horsepower nearby. So water skiers frequent the lake.

The sail club has also sponsored cruises in the past, where several members got together and chartered 2 boats for the BVIs. A great idea, and seemed pretty successful.

Finally, 2 members of the club, are instructors from our local ASA school. They steer new graduates toward the club, and many of of best sailors have come from their program. I think this is key, if you can get your yacht club, or sail club to work with the local ASA school, you can both work to make one another stronger. I am so confident of the quality our ASA school cranks out, 2 of their graduates were my crew for the summer. If I have room, I'll take newbies for crew anytime.

What you are really asking isn't how to save your yacht club... you are asking how to save sailing... Given the skill required to sail, and time it takes to learn, as well as initial cost of entry, I'd say that sailing will likely wane much more before we are through. You can have local success keeping your club alive, by recruiting new members. Recruiting like you would ANY other sport... drag people out and show them how it's done!

I have a few other ideas, but I am hoping to implement some of them with our sail club this year, so I'll let you know how they work before I share.

 

[Chris Capri 22]

I belong to the "Grapevine Sailing Club" http://grapevinesailing.org/index.php/home. It's located on Grapevine Lake in N. Texas and we operate out of Scotts Landing Marina. We celebrated our 40th anniversary this year.

We maintain about 200 active members and membership is $100 a year for individual and $130 for a family. We actively race year round and host two big open regattas a year with several smaller ones for GSC members only. We have an office at the marina and a dedicated GSC committee boat (a Bayliner Trophy 21) that we use for GSC events.

We have a very active Catalina 22 Fleet (Fleet 30) here and C22 Nationals have been hosted here by GSC on several occasions. We also have an active Mutineer 15 Fleet (Fleet 2) in our club and will be hosting the 2014 Mutineer 15 Nationals next Fall.

In addition to all that we have multiple PHRF fleets which include 2 CP22's (mine being one) and 2 CP25's that race regularly year round. The other PHRF boats range from a Precision 18 to a C&C 35 with everything in between.

We also have an active youth sailing program utilizing Optis and Lasers.

It's been my experience that sailing clubs are much more affordable than yacht clubs but the amenities will vary greatly. There is no yacht club on Lake Grapevine.

We actively promote all forms of sailing both social and racing but racing is our foundation.

We too are struggling with active participation and this seems to be epidemic throughout sailing communities everywhere. Many boats in our marina sit idle while excellent conditions invite merely yards away and no amount of coaxing can persuade these once elegant vessels to unshackle their bondage and slip freely through the medium of their purpose.

Yeah I just don't get it. We have a hell of a lot of fun though. All we can do is keep raising the fun bar and hope more people like us get swept away in the maelstrom.

If you are interested in creating a Sailing Club of your own feel free to visit our website for ideas. That info is free to everyone on the WWW.

Cheers and Great Winds

Chris
Fandango #1099
TRFK