RHYC

[pyrojames]

There should be no issue with any other yatchsman or woman, turning up unannouced, signing the,selves in and enjoying the club. Unfortunately club licensing laws mean that visitors need to be signed in, but not necessarily by a member.

It is worth saying “I’m visiting from....” but it need not be a club. Members of other clubs and on yachts should be welcome anytime. I must say that I am not overly impressed by the clubs response here either. I haven’t been down there yet this year, (see the varnishing threads!) but I shall poke some people and suggest that the club I should a bit more welcoming.

 

[Colin K]

I turned up there on the boat a few years ago with grandchildren on board. We were flying a Jolly Roger. The person dealing with berthing said that we might be asked to take the flag down.

They were crossed off my list of places to stay. They think they are superior beings.

+1.

The reasons for asking us to lower our Jolly Roger even more bizarre

 

[pyrojames]

+1.

The reasons for asking us to lower our Jolly Roger even more bizarre

There is something amiss with the Jolly Roger issues. The RHYC played host to Nancy Blackett at the Ransome jamboree. If it was a few a years ago, I suspect the berthing master might have been taking the piss.

 

[Supine Being]

As it happens I went in to the RHYC Sunday - we're berthed next door MDL Woolverstone - and The Riverside was unable to provide any meaningful service, food wise, due to a lack of a chef for the day!
Anyway, I asked if my wife and I could eat there, explaining the situation next door. We were asked if we were members and I explained that no, we're not members, but visiting. I informed them that actually we are club members of another yacht club and the staff welcomed us wholeheartedly, requesting that we fill out an entry within their visitors book.
So, yes, visitors from other yacht clubs are welcome at any time either arriving on foot or by sea.
This was the first time of being asked and I visit there a lot. I did enquire as to the policy and their explanation was that RHYC members had become concerned at increasing numbers of people just wandering in. Walkers rather than sailors or yachties from other clubs. Reasonable.
An unfortunate incident this, but, out of kilter really.
There's always jobsworths everywhere you go and sometimes they escalate what should be a very minor matter.
I'll be going back.

Thanks for that. It’s what I would have thought, but merited the question given the OP’s experience.

 

[Kukri]

Oh dear.

I am a fairly recent (five years) member. I can identify the author of post 9 above - a courteous and efficient and very busy lady - and I think I know all the bar and kitchen staff. I've never met with anything but courtesy and helpfulness, (even when leaving a tatty racing dinghy in the wrong space for months... )

It's fair to say that a visiting yachtswoman/man is easy to identify because they are wearing sailing gear and they sign the Visitors' Book, even if they haven't just parked their boat in the club marina and met the marina manager on their way ashore. Parking a car in the car park is not a guaranteed sign that someone is a visiting yachtsperson.

Did your wife identify herself as a non- member, BEFORE she ordered her coffee? It's what I always do, in a strange club, and it avoids any risk of unpleasantness, because you are in my experience always directed to a flag officer or a member who will help you.

In defence of the bar staff, they cannot know every member on sight, and to ask an old member "are you a member?" before
serving them would risk causing offence. So when your wife asked for her coffee she was assumed to be a member. Because the club uses payment cards, the tender of cash is a little unusual and that would bring forth the question, "Are you a member?"

As regards the Jolly Roger, both Pyrojames and I know a member - and berth holder in the club marina - who, having been for many years Treasurer of the Nancy Blackett Trust, almost always flies one! He's recently taken up flying a huge EU flag - no doubt that will offend some here, too...

 

[Rivers & creeks]

Hello, we have received your complaint in the office this morning but wanted to post a reply. We are sorry to hear you feel you had such a bad experience and would like to thank you for bringing this to our attention. Unfortunately without the knowledge that you were hoping to re-join; our Bar Staff have kept to our Club Rules which state that non-members cannot use the Club (as with all Clubs there are exception to this basic rule). Incidentally, there were three Flag Officers, one of our Membership Administrators and our Bar Manager in the Club on Saturday, any of whom would have been more than happy to talk to you, show you around and sign you in. We will reply to your complaint in full via email and of course we would be more than happy to discuss membership, in the meantime please accept our sincere apologies that your wife was made to feel unwelcome; as you can see from Leighb’s comments, this truly is not the usual standard at the Club.

What a delightfully corporate response. Along the lines of "I'm sorry that you chose to be upset by what happened". The point isn't the proximity of flag officers it was the knee jerk reaction to send the person away and pour their coffee down the plug hole.

 

[Kukri]

What a delightfully corporate response. Along the lines of "I'm sorry that you chose to be upset by what happened". The point isn't the proximity of flag officers it was the knee jerk reaction to send the person away and pour their coffee down the plug hole.

I am going to speak up for the RHYC secretariat. I think you are well out of line, here.

We are not discussing a multinational corporation with a PR department - we are discussing a very small office and the lady concerned works far more "hours" than she would be required to and turns her hand to anything that needs doing. She went to the trouble to post a response here as well as, I have no doubt, responding to the email, and you choose to pick it apart in public.

The point IS, indeed, the proximity of flag officers - there is a perfectly well established etiquette to follow if you enter a club of which you are not a member and the wife of the OP chose not to follow it.

 

[greylag]

I am loving this thread. Hang on while I get some more popcorn.

Many characters in the play. The terminally offended, the over zealous bar staff, the harried and overworked club administrator amongst others.

 

[Rivers & creeks]

I am loving this thread. Hang on while I get some more popcorn.

Many characters in the play. The terminally offended, the over zealous bar staff, the harried and overworked club administrator amongst others.

All that's missing is the chambermaid to make it a three act farce.

How delightful that some yacht clubs still have an unwritten code of etiquette that visitors are supposed to know and follow. Charming and very 1950's. RHYC is a highly successful yacht club and it's perfectly entitled to maintain what it perceives as its standards. By implication however it shouldn't be upset when some people find its particular code as difficult to swallow as this lady found the coffee. RHYC shouldn't be expected t change, it is what it is and has some charming and open minded members and fabulous facilities. It's just not my cup of tea, or coffee, and probably all the better for it.

 

[davidwf]

I was a member for a couple of years but only really used the bar during the week say 2 or three times a month. So membership was rather a large expense just to have an odd meal. I always thought it would have been sensible to have a bar membership category that could only be used Monday to Thursday that way the bar could generate money which would help keep the bar and food solvent.

 

[Kukri]

All that's missing is the chambermaid to make it a three act farce.

How delightful that some yacht clubs still have an unwritten code of etiquette that visitors are supposed to know and follow. Charming and very 1950's. RHYC is a highly successful yacht club and it's perfectly entitled to maintain what it perceives as its standards. By implication however it shouldn't be upset when some people find its particular code as difficult to swallow as this lady found the coffee. RHYC shouldn't be expected t change, it is what it is and has some charming and open minded members and fabulous facilities. It's just not my cup of tea, or coffee, and probably all the better for it.

It’s not “an unwritten code of etiquette” that “some clubs have”. It’s ordinary common sense, applying to any club anywhere.

You don’t just walk into a club that you don’t belong to and treat the place as if it were an hotel. It isn’t; it belongs to its members, who pay subs. You introduce yourself and explain why you are there, and embarrassing incidents are thereby avoided.

Or, as my Millennial son said, when he read this thread, “Read the notice by the door!”

 

[Colin K]

Good grief

 

[Marmalade]

Mmmm

1. As a former club officer of the East Coast's least “yachty” club (my personal opinion) I know that signing in visitors is more than just a formality - especially if the club concerned has a licence to sell alcohol.

2. I suspect this incident was not representative of RHYC and that whilst their apology was a little canned, it was an apology.

3. This forum can well do without its members calling each other names - whether they’re mere playground epithets or worse. Minn's view is as valid as anyone's... (edit: I can see that the post that prompted this has been edited - thanks)

 

[ex-Gladys]

Mmmm

1. As a former club officer of the East Coast's least “yachty” club (my personal opinion) I know that signing in visitors is more than just a formality - especially if the club concerned has a licence to sell alcohol.

2. I suspect this incident was not representative of RHYC and that whilst their apology was a little canned, it was an apology.

3. This forum can well do without its members calling each other names - whether they’re mere playground epithets or worse. Minn's view is as valid as anyone's...

Absolutely, re the club licence.

 

[steved]

Just out of interest, how welcoming is RHYC to 'motor boat owners' who visit Woolverstone marina, but would like to eat and have a drink in the RHYC. Most motor boaters will not be members of other clubs, just wondering whether we would be welcome or not.

 

[sailorman]

I did ask her why she didn't mention we were visiting with a view to joining. But I think when she was confronted with the pettiness of throwing the coffee away in front of her the red mist descended.
She did say to me that it would had felt that the bar manager would have been rather sceptical and insistent that we spoke to an official straightaway rather than having a relaxing cup of coffee after driving the 80 miles to get there. From my point of view I was annoyed at her treatment and decided we would go elsewhere.

Doctors didnt ought te get "red mist" but have control

 

[Kukri]

Just out of interest, how welcoming is RHYC to 'motor boat owners' who visit Woolverstone marina, but would like to eat and have a drink in the RHYC. Most motor boaters will not be members of other clubs, just wondering whether we would be welcome or not.

I’m not a Committee member, but “visiting yachtsmen” includes “visiting motor yachtsmen”. The club is a bit rag and sticky, but it runs RYA power boat courses and there are power boat owning members. Drop in and ask, (ha ha!) (and sign the visitors book!)

Provided of course that people don’t abuse it by dropping in regularly; if they do, they really ought to join, I think.

 

[Hadenough]

I’m not a Committee member, but “visiting yachtsmen” includes “visiting motor yachtsmen”. The club is a bit rag and sticky, but it runs RYA power boat courses and there are power boat owning members. Drop in and asking, ha ha!) (and sign the visitors book!)

Provided of course that people don’t abuse it by dropping in regularly; if they do, they really ought to join, I think.

As ex cruising members do you actually know what happens? Scenario, lunchtime, "visiting" boats, often mobos, park at RHYC hammerhead or vacant pontoons. Walk to Butt and Oyster, have lunch get back aboard, leave. No charge. Members, on swinging moorings can't get to the pontoons to provision, have no tender parking and are charged commercial rates (despite the "members discount") for coming into the marina. Facilities, not bad after the refurbishment but totally trashed by dinghy sailors / children at weekends. Club house, despite the refurbishment is still like an officers mess, no atmosphere at all. The club can't seem to decide if they want to be a club or a marina. Added to which their fees are approaching astronomical. We voted with our feet.

 

[Kukri]

“One man’s meat is another man’s poison”?

I’n puzzled to learn that there is “no tender parking” - my tender is sitting in the tender park with a great many others, so perhaps I have misunderstood what you mean?

I actually like the feel of the place at weekends, with loads of children, the Ajax fleet, and the dinghy and cruiser racers. Yes, the showers and heads get a lot of use, but surely that is better than “no use”, and they are always well cleaned - credit to those who do the work. I find it rather a happy place. It gives me the feeling that our sport is not dying on its feet after all.

 

[Hadenough]

“One man’s meat is another man’s poison”?

I’n puzzled to learn that there is “no tender parking” - my tender is sitting in the tender park with a great many others, so perhaps I have misunderstood what you mean?

I actually like the feel of the place at weekends, with loads of children, the Ajax fleet, and the dinghy and cruiser racers. Yes, the showers and heads get a lot of use, but surely that is better than “no use”, and they are always well cleaned - credit to those who do the work. I find it rather a happy place. It gives me the feeling that our sport is not dying on its feet after all.

So where do you leave your tender as a member when you want to leave it afloat for, let's say six hours, in the marina?