Yacht Club - how do you run yours

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petery

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Our South Coast club (a mix of dinghy and cruising) is busy at the weekends but virtually empty during the week apart for a handful of local drunks - all members of course.

Has your club implemented any ideas that improve mid-week attendance?

Do you open every day for lunch and in the evening?
Can non members eat in your 'restaurant' without signing in?
Do you have reduced membership fees for 'social' ie non-sailing members?
Do members living a long distance from the club get a reduced sub 'country' membership?
Is the bar/catering run by a club employee or a franchisee?
Can you get good numbers to attend 'boating' talks?


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Only open for lunch at weekends. Non members cannot eat without being signed in, the reastaurant is franchised out and there is a potential licensing problem, has caused much concern recently.

I have been pushing for a social membership without success, but we do have out of port membership. There are regular Thursday evening talks during the winter which attract a reasonable crowd of pensioners!

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Some 1600 members, mixed dinghy & cruisers. Open for lunch every day bar Monday, visitors must be signed in. Bar is run exclusively by members but catering is contracted out.

No social memberships and no reductions for distant members, reason: that it always appears to be the locals who do all the work, why let those who contribute little pay less?.

Saturday nights in the winter, a theme dinner provided by a member or group of members on a cost plus basis i.e cheap, but really good fun and good value with the bar profits boosted.

The clubs ethos is very much a DIY club, but it is increasingly difficult to maintain that ethos - it appears that no one wants to do anything these days, but would rather pay someone else. This sadly appears to apply to boat ownership also, where owners appear to be disinterested in maintenance or repair - much easier to get the yard to do it!! Gawd help them when they they have a crisis at sea, they will have no idea of self resolution.



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I don\'t run ours

It's run by very important people who will no doubt be rewarded some New Years Honours list - I just think they need to get out more.

<hr width=100% size=1>regards
Claymore
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Our south coast sailing club...

Dingy & cruiser racing, large membership, club operated by employed staff and management. Bar & dinning room open for breakfast, lunch & dinner pretty much all year, from 17th March through to December 31st opens 7 days a week.

Racing in the various classes/series is near as dam it an all year round affair.

The place is normally busy most of the time, the bar is always very well attended!!!
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Your club sounds very much like mine, we have a large number of London and other home counties members who have bought up all the spare homes in our village which leaves youngsters like myself still at home with our folks because the property prices have gone through the roof. They come down at weekends and expect the place to run like clockwork and everything to be laid on for them. If it was not for a bunch of hardworking locals (handful of drunks!) I doubt our club would be in existence.

I think that people living out of a catchment area should be made to pay more to be members and locals who use the club more and put more in should get a discount.

We only open for lunch Thursday - Sunday and the same in the evenings except no munch on a Sunday night.

Non members are supposed to be signed in and rarely are they caught for not being signed in, however we now have a card system for buying drinks and getting in the club which has helped.

Sailing Club is for sailors, no social membership, you have to demonstrate your interest in sailing before becoming a member and there is still a waiting list once you have done that.

Food is run on franchise, bar run by club with agency staff.

We have a variety of social events in the winter which keep weekends fairly busy, during the week is when I like to join my fellow drunks, although the peace is obliterated once a fortnight by a load of old gits doing Scottish dancing on a Wednesday night.

The bar is open 7 days a week which is good.

<hr width=100% size=1>http://www.yachtinguniverse.com
 
I used to be an 'out of town' member of another club which was very much a DIY one, including running 'mooring party weekends' to lift and re-lay all the cruiser moorings. Each member was required to give up one weekend each winter to work on the moorings, in groups of 6 with a team leader. I was a mooring party teamleader, drove 2hrs from home to be there at 8am on the Saturday and slept on board my boat in the yard overnight before another work day from 8am on Sunday, as did several others on my team. The 2 locals members however frequently played truant totally, turned up very late, or on one day only - for important things like Xmas shopping, busy decorating etc etc. This was when one out of town team member, then 68 yrs young had his teeth freeze in the bunkside mug overnight and couldn't make a hot drink because the butane cylinder was too cold to work the cooker. Which ones do you think should pay more for membership?




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Madoc has a good mix of all disciplins - although that wasn't always the case. We also have a good mix of locals and distant members. We have a sailing section (obviously!) and a rowing section, which is by far the fastest growing section which has brought in many new members with loads of interest and weekday activities, and a small fraternity of motorboaters, of which I am one, and I am on the committee in this capacity. To answer your questions directly...

We open every day for lunch and in the evening, in the season. Out of season its evenings only.

No, none members must be signed in. However, we do allow functions for none members by prior request - and we get quite a few!

No - all members pay the correct annual fee, be that single, family, student etc.

There is no reduction for distance.

The bar is run by an employee, who also acts as club steward and looks after the day to day finances. The restaurant is a franchise.

We publish events well in advance to encourage good attendance. It's good business for the club, the bar, and the restaurant.

Click the link below to take a look outside and inside our club. I also design and maintain the website - so its fairly basic.

I hope this helps.

<hr width=100% size=1>Madoc Yacht Club
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.madocyachtclub.co.uk>http://www.madocyachtclub.co.uk</A>
 
Prepared to be Bored

on saturday night.

CCC Prize-giving and dinner dance.

OK not too bored - I'm quite excited as I'm up for a wee prize this year.

Donald

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Re: A wee prize?

No. Your'e spot on. Prizes are pish. Charles Rennie MacIntosh replica something or others.

Donald

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Madoc Yacht Club

Doesn't seem to have changed a lot. My boat was berthed there when purchased and we spent a winter sorting out. Always had a warm welcome in the clubhouse, even as non-members. I see Alan Parr is on the committee. Haven't seen him for 10 years or so, worked in the same company as him many years ago. My best wishes to him when you see him next.

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Re: A wee prize?

Well - that sounds better than bakelite seabirds which is what I used to get when of a competitive nature

<hr width=100% size=1>regards
Claymore
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Vyv - Some sad news

Hi Vyv,

Some sad news, I'm afraid. Alan died some months back, very suddenly, from a heart attack. He was also our Race Officer as well as being on the committee. He is indeed sadly missed.

Kind of stupid of me to miss out on updating the web site - just pressures of work right now. We've just voted in our new committee ans Commodore, so I have to do this now anyway.

Sorry to be the bearer of sad news - all the best.

<hr width=100% size=1>Madoc Yacht Club
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.madocyachtclub.co.uk>http://www.madocyachtclub.co.uk</A>
 
Well, you are obviously one of those guys that can read the club constitution, your kind are in the minority at my club but would be very welcome. I ended up doing 41 rescue boat duties one year becuase someone who was rostered down as one of their two duties per year could not make it. I still think the that local members subsidise the club for DFT's, just look at my bar tab!!

<hr width=100% size=1>http://www.yachtinguniverse.com
 
Re: A wee prize?

My grandad had a Bakelite telephone. Same era?

Donald

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I belonged to that club for over 20 years. I was introduced to it by two friends from where I worked and we all travelled the 2 hrs to the club every weekend in season and many others in winter to work on our boats, as did many others, some travelling even more miles or for longer times. You have to be very keen to do that week in week out with a family but that is what we did, not because of 'club rules' but because we wanted to. Maybe it is different for dinghy owners (I sailed dinghies inland before that time) because you have just a couple of hours of racing and thats it done, whereas as cruisers we arrived around 8pm on Friday and left around 5pm on Sunday. I was once Sailing Sec of an inland dinghy SC and like you spent many days in the rescue boat when I should have been racing, very annoying. However all the members there were within 20mls of the club so distance wasn't the factor, just inconsiderate behaviour, eventually covered by a rule change that came with sanctions!

We now live by our current club and have done for some 15 years, we spend a lot of time there too but since I will not drink and drive, little of that time is spent in the bar, and as cruisers we have a bar on board and we are gone for the weekends anyway. When we lived away though we were very jealous of the lucky ones who lived locally and could use the club and their boats during the week. C'est la vie n'est ce pas?



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<<I think that people living out of a catchment area should be made to pay more to be members and locals who use the club more and put more in should get a discount.>>

So in the rush to get inside the catchment area, alll the rest of your houses will be snapped up! Everyone has to live on the coast?


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Our wee club has about 200 members (150ish adults 40ish cadets).
In the sailing season (april-september) we race tuesday and friday evenings and some saturdays and sundays; we race Loch Long one designs, dinghies (mostly for the cadets ATM) and occasional handicap race for the cruisers.
The last couple of years the house committee have run lunches on sundays in June and August.
Everything is done by members bar the hoovering which is paid for.
We have a reduced membership for people living more than 50 miles away of (I think) about £12 as opposed to £45.
The bar is open whenever there is a race on, and on Fridays throughout the winter.
Talks are occasionally arranged and and are usually well attended (except when it clashes with the local real ale festival!).
In common with most things of this nature, we occasionally have shortages of volunteers, which does create some ill-feeling amongst the committee and regulars, but we generally muddle through.
fingers are Xed at the moment for us getting our lotto grant approved so we can extend our jetty and slipway

cheers,
david

<hr width=100% size=1>This candidate works well when cornered and watched like a rat in a trap.
 
You assume that house prices match my proposed increase, average house price well in excess of £250K bring it on if they are willing to pay for it.. I would propose we purchase a small fleet of Swan yachts for Thursday evening racing for the locals! That should just make up for the hassle we put up with.

<hr width=100% size=1>http://www.yachtinguniverse.com
 
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