Most stuck-up yacht club?

demonboy

demonboy

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I was chatting to a couple of mates this evening whilst eating in my fave restaurant here in Bodrum, and we were discussing snobbery in sailing. I went for drink in Falmouth Yacht Club once and it was so stuffy I felt like I was in a taxidermists (hmmm, rubbish pun). Despite the sign on the door saying all yacht-owners welcome we quickly downed our pint and left due to the hostility we felt (we were in our waterproofs and not slacks, blazer and tie like the regulars). /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

It got me thinking:
Which yacht club or yachting region is the most stuck up you've ever been in, and why?

(Am I allowed to post this type of thing up or is it considered defamatory?)
 
I've only ever stepped foot across the threshold of a couple. I once almost stepped into the West Mersea Yacht Club (is that their name? I mean the posh one, maybe it has Royal in the title), having picked up a mooring, paid my dues and been directed to the Yacht Club as the place where visiting yachtsmen get showers. When I enquired at the gate, I was told yes of course you can have a shower - errr, you ARE a member of another yacht club aren't you? When I told him errr no, just a humble visiting yachtsman, I was told to push off.

Happily the dinghy sailing club a hundred yards or so along the front were terribly helpful and did the decent thing.

Apart from that, the only other club I stepped into was the Royal Lymington once as a guest. They did a very pleasant lunch /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
BTW, I just mentioned that I'm in Bodrum because even if there is snobbery here I don't understand the language to notice it anyway (they do like polishing their boats as much as they like sailing them though).
 
Came across one near The Mumbles, mid-evening, with people inside and only around 9.00pm.
We - two couples - had dinghied ashore, smartly dressed - hoping for a beer and possibly something to eat ( those inside were managing ), but were turned away with "We're just about to close..." And it's not as if we were unable to speak the local language - my friend was brought up in Barry, not far away, and is fluent in Celtic.

They didn't get a chance to hear my dulcet tones, so it must have been 'inverted snobbery'.......
 
Things may have changed now, but a decade or more ago one of the East coast blue-ensign clubs was notorious for snobbery. An old chum came down for a few days to muck about on my boat, on her moorings with both a great pub and the blue-ensign pile a short row away. Gorgeous bloke - comes from a family that's been in the same house and farmed the same land for 600 years - and he's got a quite natural ability to wander in anywhere and feel quite at home.

Anyway, on day one he excuses himself to go off and clean up and phone his girlfie (few mobiles in them days). As he comes out again to pick me up I notice he's done a pretty good job of cleaning up - the pub toilet's wash hand basin offered limited opportunities.

Day two he excuses himself with the words "Right. Mega dump. I may be some time." Knowing him of old, I made a mental note not to enter the pub toilet for at least an hour.

He came back on board chortling away merrily. Yesterday, he said, he'd gone in to what he thought was a Council amenity block and was pleased to find a shower with two fresh towels laid out - which he made happy use of before using the adjacent wall coinbox to make his call. Today he'd taken his dump and was on his way out when he was accosted by 'this cross little Herbert' who demanded whether he'd been responsible for leaving the Commodore's personal club towels in a sodden muddy heap in the shower. His look of utter incomprehension prompted the inevitable 'You ARE a member, aren't you?" question. As a cry of "Dear Christ!" and deep gagging noises came from the gents, light of a sort dawned and my chum answered "Ah! You're a club as well, are you? How wonderful", leaving the Herbert red-faced and choking in fury.
 
I think that one of the good things about this sport is that you are welcomed at other clubs; I've never had a problem. We've never even been asked if we are members of the club, yet alone if we are members of another club. Some clubs feel a bit stuffier than others but it's their club, so it's up to to them what they do with it.

On one occasion I was challenged when I went into the bar (no shirt on, or wearing boots, I can't remember). I explained to the guy that I was only coming in to pay for using the pontoon (most people use it and go without paying) and he was more than happy with that.

In reply to the previous posting about being turned away from a club because the poster was not in any club; it's because these things are done on a reciprocal basis. True, it was a bit "stuffy" to be turned away but the answer is to join a club!
 
Some of the Spanish yacht clubs are very, very snobby!! But the one in Peurto Pollensa in majorca, (if you are moored on their visitor quay) is very, very good, including pool and restaurant. The one in St. Antonio on ibiza is also very good and accomodating.
 
It's not so much that Spanish clubs are stuck up. They are social clubs and have little or nothing to do with yachting. They will generally let visiting yachtsmen in if smartly dressed but really don't like it.

In larger towns you will find that there are two or more clubs. Go to the one with piles of optimists outside, that's the one that has the real sailing people and will make you welcome.
 
Nah you ain't seen nothing .For a wonderful combination of total grandeur and at the same time impeccably good manners and an openhanded welcome to slightly salty visitors,the Spanish and Portugese have it hands down . In my experience -the slightly nouveau aspirational UK YACHTclubs are the ones to beware of ,no names.
By the way I found Falmouth YC smart and helpful when i chanced to arrange to buy some much needed anchor chain from one of their immaculately dressed members there. Maybe just lucky !
 
Re: Most welcoming yacht club?

Club uniform at the Royal Northumberland Yacht Club appears at some times of the season to be a boilersuit although we do have a club tie and RNYC Ensign.

We have showers a club bar and a visitiors pontoon with water and electricity.

Charges are very reasonable and we welcome boats to Blyth from all parts. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Further details on the link below.

http://www.rnyc.org.uk/
 
West Mersea Yacht Club is IMO it's the most stuck up club on the east coast.

There is no royal in the title however, I'm sure it would like it.

The Dabchicks sailing club further down are a much nicer, freindlier crowd, they seem to have a more sailing community minded spirit.

There's a running joke with my family and friends who crew, whenever we don't get a wave from other yachts or mobos we comment they must be from WMYC.

I've found many of the other clubs on the east coast offer a very warm welcome, and excellent food Brightlingsea being my favourite. The people at Tollesbury are also very nice and they are happy to help anyway they can.
 
That's it! Dabchicks were extremely pleasant and helpful /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
[ QUOTE ]
In reply to the previous posting about being turned away from a club because the poster was not in any club; it's because these things are done on a reciprocal basis. True, it was a bit "stuffy" to be turned away but the answer is to join a club!

[/ QUOTE ]

But there's no other benefit I can see in me joining a club. It would have been the most expensive shower I ever had if I had to pay several years worth of club fees just for this one occasion. I rarely visit the same port twice, and don't have a 'home' mooring or port, so why join a club? Can't remember another town I've visited where there weren't some kind of harbour showering arrangements, so I've never asked to use club showers or other facilities before or since. And I have no desire to use yacht club bars (maybe I'm missing something).

Of course, it's absolutely their right not to be helpful, and I'm not complaining about it, just commenting that the guy I spoke to was IMHO a twerp.
 
In this neck of the woods very few so called Yacht Clubs actually have any moorings of their own. All they really have is a clubhouse so that becomes the be all and end all of their existence. The clubs with their own moorings, hence boats and real people, tend to be a bit nicer - unless they only have one type of boat on those moorings. These boats are usually small and wet.
 
"expensive shower"

The point you miss, Simon, is that someone has to pay for that expensive shower and most of the Clubs I have been in have been of the "self-help" type. We welcome visitors - but would like to feel that welcome reciprocated when we cruise away from home. As you refuse to contribute to your local club and hence would never reciprocate, why do you feel we should support you at ours ?
Ken
 
Quite agree. Do you do "only one picture" for £20 because "I don't need all the other equipment you have".
No, neither did I. If I've had to invest in premises and equipment, all clients have to cover those costs.
 
They are like that in an attempt to discourage the great unwashed from sprawling everywhere with loud chat, nut-scratching, bellowing laughter, scruffy dress, guffawing, belching and farting their way through pints of lager. All the things that a lot of people now consider as de rigeur to make them feel at home. It is however refreshing to see women being treated with due deference and polite manners and I imagine it must be a culture shock for those ladies who have become inured to all of the above and think everyone behaves like it.

We have dined at that club on two or three occasions when visiting Falmouth and found every one polite and normal despite not being in formal dress. We weren't drowned out in conversation by the latest bunch of nut scratchers washed up on the excitement of body odour and talk of rough weather. Rather refreshing. Long live the club.
 
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