Yacht club dress codes

[Serin]

I fear this is just another manifestation of English aspirational middle class snobbery; golf clubs are by all account even worse.

Up until 3 years ago, when virtually all my sailing was on flotillas, I used to defend us against such accusations. Not since we got a boat in the UK though. For far too many English sailors in my (OK, limited) experience, having a 'yacht' is first and foremost a status symbol. And seemingly the more so the more modest the boat - you see it on YBW every day, sauced with a hefty dollop of bitterness.

If this is so, I think it must be mainly a south coast phenomenon. My own experience of south coast sailing is limited to dinghies off the beach near Newhaven when I was a student and occasional forays in the Solent when I was young (long ago) I've never encountered anything like it on the east or southwest coast.

But something akin to direct snobbery does permeate this forum. Not direct snobbery, but inverted snobbery galore. The two are close cousins.

Incidentally, I think the gentleman who doesn't want to drink his beer with his eyes closed should take another look at the specimens of his own gender along the bar, guffawing their heads off until their triple chins and beer bellies are all a-wobble. You'd need earplugs to go with your eye protectors.

 

[BrianH]

Incidentally, I think the gentleman who doesn't want to drink his beer with his eyes closed should take another look at the specimens of his own gender along the bar, guffawing their heads off until their triple chins and beer bellies are all a-wobble. You'd need earplugs to go with your eye protectors.

This matches my own overriding memories of English clubs and pubs, impressions that I thought isolated, out of date and too subjective, until I read the lovely book by Jonathan Raban, 'Passage to Juneau', where he breaks his cruise up the coast of British Columbia to return to England to see his dying father. Driving north from the airport he:

"stopped at a pretty, low-beamed pub, its walls tricked out with horse-brasses, yards of ale, and sepia photos of dead cricket teams, [ ... ] it was full of people and all of them were laughing.

I had forgotten that laughter. No nation on earth laughs as loudly, frequently, and insincerely as does England: the land of ha-ha-ha and haw-haw-haw. In the pub, newcomers were greeting the already arrived with an exchange of hearty guffaws. Around the tables, the laughs were coming thick and fast, each performed in a studiedly personal style. The alpha-male trumpet-laugh. The wry, thin sneeze delivered through the nose. The Falstaffian explosion, beginning in the belly and aimed at the ceiling. The complicit chuffing sound of a steam locomotive getting underway. The nudge-in-the-elbow snigger."​

 

[laika]

This thread has probably all but run its course but ....

What's the point of a dress code and why would a yacht club be expected to have one and, say, a railway modelling club not? That includes "Black Tie" events: These are frequently the most significant (sometimes only) events in a club's social calendar so "Well you can just miss those if you don't like dressing up" isn't really a good response. Most people don't own a dinner jacket, they cost money and significant amounts of time to hire and return and if you buy one exclusively for such events it will go mouldy in a boat locker.

This isn't a question to people theorising about clubs whose rules they don't like it's a question to people who are members of a club with dressing up rules: What value do you see in a dress code? (rules about wet/dirty clothes excepted).

 

[Fantasie 19]

This isn't a question to people theorising about clubs whose rules they don't like it's a question to people who are members of a club with dressing up rules: What value do you see in a dress code? (rules about wet/dirty clothes excepted).

Tradition...

 

[l'escargot]

This thread has probably all but run its course but ....

What's the point of a dress code and why would a yacht club be expected to have one and, say, a railway modelling club not? That includes "Black Tie" events: These are frequently the most significant (sometimes only) events in a club's social calendar so "Well you can just miss those if you don't like dressing up" isn't really a good response. Most people don't own a dinner jacket, they cost money and significant amounts of time to hire and return and if you buy one exclusively for such events it will go mouldy in a boat locker.

This isn't a question to people theorising about clubs whose rules they don't like it's a question to people who are members of a club with dressing up rules: What value do you see in a dress code? (rules about wet/dirty clothes excepted).

I think there is a presumption here that people only visit sailing clubs when they're sailing. If that were the case many clubs would just cease to exist. Clubs have to offer far more than just a beer and a snack at the end of a sailing day or as a break during maintenance to survive. I think most of the clubs I have ever visited have been populated by a higher percentage of "off duty" sailors and it is these people who ensure the club's survival. If there wasn't a demand for "black tie" events then they wouldn't happen - and they often contribute to the revenue stream to subsidise other activities.

 

[BrianH]

This thread has probably all but run its course but ....

What's the point of a dress code and why would a yacht club be expected to have one and, say, a railway modelling club not? That includes "Black Tie" events: These are frequently the most significant (sometimes only) events in a club's social calendar so "Well you can just miss those if you don't like dressing up" isn't really a good response. Most people don't own a dinner jacket, they cost money and significant amounts of time to hire and return and if you buy one exclusively for such events it will go mouldy in a boat locker.

It was a generation or two ago when I last belonged to a yacht club but being in the north-east it probably wasn't as stuffy as some southerly ones. There was the annual award dinner where dinner jackets were prescribed and as someone who had won a few pots and a flag officer to boot, I was expected to attend. However, I always turned up in a business suit, along with a couple of others - perhaps the tongues wagged behind my back but no one openly challenged me and I was anyway in those days impervious to such things with the arrogance of youth.

 

[ParkerS]

I see it as a quite reasonable way of influencing the type of people who choose to join or visit the clubs concerned.

When we booked our first cruise, the travel agent suggested that we chose one with several "Formal evenings". The idea did not initially appeal to either of us, but then the agent explained that formal evenings tended to put off the type of people who thought that dressing for dinner was putting on a football shirt over their string vest.

I do not imagine that a sailing club would attract yobby footballer types the way the say horse racing does, but I would suggest that the rule is there more to deter undesirables than to raise dress standards.

 

[jac]

This thread has probably all but run its course but ....

What's the point of a dress code and why would a yacht club be expected to have one and, say, a railway modelling club not? That includes "Black Tie" events: These are frequently the most significant (sometimes only) events in a club's social calendar so "Well you can just miss those if you don't like dressing up" isn't really a good response. Most people don't own a dinner jacket, they cost money and significant amounts of time to hire and return and if you buy one exclusively for such events it will go mouldy in a boat locker.

This isn't a question to people theorising about clubs whose rules they don't like it's a question to people who are members of a club with dressing up rules: What value do you see in a dress code? (rules about wet/dirty clothes excepted).

You raise some good points but I think from the YC perspective the year is in 2 halves. Easter to October - sailing season - lots of visiting yachtsmen who visit - members having a quick bite / drink before or after sailing.

The rest of the year it very quiet. Even going into the club when doing maintenance can be an issue. I'll do it if we're afloat as I need the launch to get to the boat and the carpark to leave the car. When she's ashore I'm not going to drive for 15 minutes from Bursledon to Hamble for a sarnie.

Clubs therefore need something to drag in the punters. Talks from esteemed guests ( take a bow Dylan,) will bring in some but they need variety. One or two black tie events a year will drag in plenty of people and appeal to a different crowd. I think many ladies ( being sexist) like an excuse to dress up / buy a nice dress - blokes have it easy - just wear the DJ you already own. Make it the event where prizes are awarded ( i.e. laying up or fitting out) and you get plenty of takers.

Through in some themed events, Halloween / bonfire night, xmas party, New years eve party, Burns night, Valentines night, Easter etc and you get the basis for income throughout the year. I don't think many people have an issue with those events being governed by a dress code as wherever you go, things are.

The issue I think most people have is the blanket rule when there isn't a special event on. Fortunately my own club doesn't have one ( well not that i'm aware) but then I don't see people looking indecent.

Archaic rules such as no jeans are really pointless IMHO and reflect attitudes of decades ago when jeans where the youth clothing. My 73 year old mum now wears them so that hardly applies - just that some clubs are perhaps stuck in the dark ages. They will get to the point where the old fashioned nature of the club puts off young potentials who fail to join, resulting in the club getting more out of date and less appealing, losing membership and eventually failing.

 

[DanTribe]

I visited a surf life saving club in Oz which had a strict "no beachwear" rule which I found a bit odd.
Shirts with collars and shoes for blokes. Ladies had to have their shoulders covered, shorts just about tolerated.
Really it had become a lunch club and casino for retirees rather than a Surf Club.

 

[Capt. Clueless]

I do not imagine that a sailing club would attract yobby footballer types the way the say horse racing does,

Couldn't agree more. Who the hell would want Millionaire race horse owners and the queen joining their club?

 

[Blue Sunray]

Couldn't agree more. Who the hell would want Millionaire race horse owners and the queen joining their club?

 

[Viking]

I arrived in Norway and joined the local yacht club. I asked a member if I could be introduced to one of the clubs officers! I was greeted by a gentleman, who finding out I was English, looked me up and down and said quite firmly " This is NOT the kind of yacht club you will find in England. This is a hands-on club"! And true to his word he was right! I've had over 15 years with a most enjoyable club..With little or no dress-code! I guess this thread was what he meant!