Is the Cruising Association worth joining?

[Flossdog]

As a follow up, I did join the Cruising Association and so far am hugely impressed. The website is fantastic with so much information. Have been contacted by a section secretary to welcome me and I have a really good feeling that I have made a really good decision in joining.

 

[KellysEye]

Agree about the CA for the Med (and Baltic). For ocean saiing the Ocean Cruising Club has port officers in every country. Membership requires a 1,000 mile non-stop passage, you can join as an associate member before the passage but can't fly the club flag.

 

[Nostrodamus]

I joined last years which was probably the worst time ever to join as the website was being updated.
I have to say that as a cruiser not in England so many of the options open to the CA members are not open to me. ie the numerous lectures they have. Unfortunately all these lectures happen in London which is not good for a lot of people.
The HR's such as Tony Cross (Tony is particularly pro active) do an excellent job on the whole but I have also come across those who do nothing at all.
The biggest assets is the members who put in lots of accurate and up to date information without trying to stab anyone in the back at the same time (which incidentally I miss).
The information on the website is good and the redesign of the site may help to make it easier to find what you want.
My biggest gripe for people such as myself who is not in England has to be the expense. It is the members who put all the information in yet they have to pay for the privilege of doing so.
Has it been value for money.. absolutely not. Is there good people and information on their site.. yes. Will I re-join this year.. no.

 

[DaveRo]

The biggest assets is the members who put in lots of accurate and up to date information...

Personally, when I post information onto the web I like it to be available to as many people as possible. When I occasionally have something useful to share - a new Greek mobile phone offer for example - I post it here and on phone forums for anyone to see. In return I've benefited from the huge amount of sailing information which has been made freely available by other people here.

I did post some reports to the CA's website when I was briefly a member, but I would have preferred them to have been visible to the web. (I can't now see them.)

 

[jerrytug]

Yes Dave would it hurt them to let the oi polloi read their precious forums?

 

[prv]

Yes Dave would it hurt them to let the oi polloi read their precious forums?

Yes, it would. The information gathered by their members is their stock-in-trade, it's a large part of what people give them £120 a year for. I definitely lean towards the "information wants to be free" side, like Dave above, but I can't really blame the CA for their business model.

Pete

 

[Archiee]

Anyway, CA has been providing services, information, help and advice to cruising sailors across the globe.

 

[Tony Cross]

Personally, when I post information onto the web I like it to be available to as many people as possible. When I occasionally have something useful to share - a new Greek mobile phone offer for example - I post it here and on phone forums for anyone to see. In return I've benefited from the huge amount of sailing information which has been made freely available by other people here.

I did post some reports to the CA's website when I was briefly a member, but I would have preferred them to have been visible to the web. (I can't now see them.)

You'll find that a great many CA members do exactly that and post information that they think is valuable to everyone on here as well. The CA uses it's own mechanism for reporting nav errors, pilot book errors, good places, bad places etc. they're called Cruising Reports. They are organised into a manageable structure and made available to members both on the members-only website and via a smartphone app (iOS and Android). It's perfectly reasonable I think for information collected by members for members to be available only to members. That's one of the many benefits we pay for.

Yes Dave would it hurt them to let the oi polloi read their precious forums?

The CA fora (and there are many) are another major benefit of membership. They put you in touch with members all over the world and questions from the simple to the highly technical are answered on there daily. And, I might add, without the ridicule, back-biting and thread-drift that you often find on some other fora.

I've said before that CA membership is not for all and I applaud those who have tried membership, found it didn't suit them and left. Each to his or her own.

 

[DaveRo]

...I definitely lean towards the "information wants to be free" side, like Dave above, but I can't really blame the CA for their business model.
Pete

Yes, I wasn't criticising CA for having private forums, or cruising reports, just saying that some people may not see that as a good thing.

On a couple of occasions I saw useful reports about mobile data access on their forums and (with the author's permission) reposted it on prepaidgsm.net. (This was in the days when the mobile internet was much more difficult than now!)

If members are reposting useful stuff here as well, then I thank them.

 

[binch]

I rather wish I had joined the CA. During our world wanderings, we have been elected Hon Mems, and/or invited to join over 40 yacht clubs and the subscriptions were ruining me. We are down now to the RCC, OCC, and RNSA, all excellent value if ocean cruising to places that do not have marinas (the best kind for a cruising yacht) plus our local lot, the Medway Yacht Club because they have a very good chef and do not overcharge.
But the CA is an escellent lot. We have given talks there, and I am very impressed by their cruising library and chart library. The editor of their club magazine is first class.

 

[jimbaerselman]

Has it been value for money.. absolutely not. Is there good people and information on their site.. yes. Will I re-join this year.. no.

We'll miss you! Your criticisms of how we do things have been most useful.

And you were right about the web site. It was a maze which could only be navigated by experts until last October. Navigation is now much easier, and the content is being re-arranged. On the table are proposals to put some really useful material on publicly available pages - but that'll take a few more months. Volunteers will soon be putting to sea for the summer.

 

[Conachair]

Does anyone else enjoy just turning up?

 

[Nostrodamus]

We'll miss you! Your criticisms of how we do things have been most useful.

And you were right about the web site. It was a maze which could only be navigated by experts until last October. Navigation is now much easier, and the content is being re-arranged. On the table are proposals to put some really useful material on publicly available pages - but that'll take a few more months. Volunteers will soon be putting to sea for the summer.

Jim,
As you know it needed a good shaking up and the whole CA needed re looking at.

To be fair I think this is what has happened and electing you into a position that may influence others will help as long as they are prepared to listen.

Members the CA were not making any criticism of the organisation for some reason and were more than happy to accept what was put before them. There needs to be constructive criticism as you well know to make others think and move things on.

It seemed like and overgrown yacht club that was struggling to find a direction.

People like yourself and Tony seem to have injected new life and I am sure you will help steer it back towards what it should be.

From what I have seen over the last few months things have changed, it is getting better and Tony is really promoting the Med section. On his enthusiasm alone it may be worth joining if you are cruising the Med.

I still don't think it is worth the money for those full time cruising who often put the feedback into the Association. It may be that my first year as a member had a lot of things that went wrong. No doubt others will say it was worth every penny.

 

[Tony Cross]

Jim,
As you know it needed a good shaking up and the whole CA needed re looking at.

To be fair I think this is what has happened and electing you into a position that may influence others will help as long as they are prepared to listen.

Members the CA were not making any criticism of the organisation for some reason and were more than happy to accept what was put before them. There needs to be constructive criticism as you well know to make others think and move things on.

It seemed like and overgrown yacht club that was struggling to find a direction.

People like yourself and Tony seem to have injected new life and I am sure you will help steer it back towards what it should be.

From what I have seen over the last few months things have changed, it is getting better and Tony is really promoting the Med section. On his enthusiasm alone it may be worth joining if you are cruising the Med.

I still don't think it is worth the money for those full time cruising who often put the feedback into the Association. It may be that my first year as a member had a lot of things that went wrong. No doubt others will say it was worth every penny.

Thank you Nostro for your kind words.

The CA is one of those organisations where a great many people put in a lot of effort that is not always obvious, nevertheless their efforts are extremely valuable and important, in may cases their input is essential. I'm just one of those noisy buggers who gets noticed and I don't really see my input as being as important as you make out, but thanks anyway.

I'd also echo Jim's view that your input was very welcome and I know that much of what you had to say did make a difference, I really am sad that you're leaving. At least you gave us a try, nobody can ask for more.....