G
Guest
Guest
I get the general impression that the number of members in all clubs is dropping each year. Is this the case? RYS excluded of coarse.
halcyon
Well-known member
Yes.
Ours has fallen since 98, only new people moving into the area, and first time owners keep the numbers up. Problem is that most new members saw Hawards Way and assume that's a yacht club, result that we are loosing old ( 10-20 years) members because of the atmosphere beibg generated.
Brian
Ours has fallen since 98, only new people moving into the area, and first time owners keep the numbers up. Problem is that most new members saw Hawards Way and assume that's a yacht club, result that we are loosing old ( 10-20 years) members because of the atmosphere beibg generated.
Brian
dafteddy
New member
Yacht Clubs, like any other clubs with a social function, will always reflect the enthusiasm, complacency or apathy of their members. Some do well when in a position to attract people to what they offer, be it on the water or social. Others fall out of favour due to complacency or lack of "social attractiveness" in the eyes of the local beholders. My own club is no different. The ability of the current committee to attract members to sailing or social facilities has ebbed and flowed for as long as I can remember. It's a bit like Premier League Football. There is promotion and relegation. At the moment, low and rising - five years ago - high and falling. Ten years ago....... You see what I mean.
Let all club members rejoice. Your club is, for better or for worse, your club. If the world, in all its manifestations, wants to join, be careful. If the world, for better or for worse, doesn't want to join, work.
Every so often there comes a committee with the ability to gel with a view to promotion of the club's objects. At other times, there are just the narrow minded objects of a (yacht) class clique coming to the fore. T'was ever thus.
That's clubs.
Dafteddy
Red to red and green to green, all is safety, go between!<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by dafteddy on Sat May 25 22:42:55 2002 (server time).</FONT></P>
Let all club members rejoice. Your club is, for better or for worse, your club. If the world, in all its manifestations, wants to join, be careful. If the world, for better or for worse, doesn't want to join, work.
Every so often there comes a committee with the ability to gel with a view to promotion of the club's objects. At other times, there are just the narrow minded objects of a (yacht) class clique coming to the fore. T'was ever thus.
That's clubs.
Dafteddy
Red to red and green to green, all is safety, go between!<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by dafteddy on Sat May 25 22:42:55 2002 (server time).</FONT></P>
Gunfleet
New member
I used to live in a well known East Anglian sailing village. When the moorings renewal came round a note came too saying the local yacht club was looking for members. I tend to be a lone cruiser but pride myself on an open mind, so I rang them. Since I have two teenage sons and both sail, you'd think I'd be a prime candidate. The yacht club secretary's reply was, ' Come and visit us and we'll have a look at you.' Condescending git. I continued to plough my lonely farrow across the estuary sands. Of course, there are yacht clubs which are completely the opposite. Who hasn't been cheered after a blustery passage accross the Thames to stagger up the steps to the Royal TempleYacht Club? May the sun always shine on them.
castaway
New member
Im not suprised that Club membership has been falling.
It must be difficult to attract new sailing members when it appears that you have to have 10 years or so behind one before you qualify to get a mooring.
For someone like myself who lives 50 miles from the coast a Sailing club without a mooring is as good as golf club with out Greens.
A few years back I joined a Cub on the western side of Southampton Water (Joining fee, Membership fee etc.) as the Sec had said that moorings were available... A week or so later when I went to see the "Bosun" He laughed and said Id be on a list for my 5ft draft fin keeler for years..... Last time I went there.
Sure a club is there for more than a convienient place to moor yr boat. And If you live in the area I could see myself using it a "Local".... But for myself and Im sure many more people who live away from the coast, the whole club thing doesnt l appear to work.
And before anyone mentions it, I am not shy of doing my work party days/Bar duty etc., a few weekends a year.
Basically Its no good keeping yr boat in one place then having to jump in your car to drive to "The Club" and then driving home.
Nick.
It must be difficult to attract new sailing members when it appears that you have to have 10 years or so behind one before you qualify to get a mooring.
For someone like myself who lives 50 miles from the coast a Sailing club without a mooring is as good as golf club with out Greens.
A few years back I joined a Cub on the western side of Southampton Water (Joining fee, Membership fee etc.) as the Sec had said that moorings were available... A week or so later when I went to see the "Bosun" He laughed and said Id be on a list for my 5ft draft fin keeler for years..... Last time I went there.
Sure a club is there for more than a convienient place to moor yr boat. And If you live in the area I could see myself using it a "Local".... But for myself and Im sure many more people who live away from the coast, the whole club thing doesnt l appear to work.
And before anyone mentions it, I am not shy of doing my work party days/Bar duty etc., a few weekends a year.
Basically Its no good keeping yr boat in one place then having to jump in your car to drive to "The Club" and then driving home.
Nick.
LadyInBed
Well-known member
I used to belong to the Royal Dorset YC but 'resigned' when I changed my boat and moved it to a new area.
A friend told me the other week that there was only 3 or 4 boats out on their moorings in Portland Harbour. Because the club is in Weymouth, the membership falls into two stalls - those who go to the bar and those who go sailing.
A friend told me the other week that there was only 3 or 4 boats out on their moorings in Portland Harbour. Because the club is in Weymouth, the membership falls into two stalls - those who go to the bar and those who go sailing.
Viking
New member
Sorry to go against the run here. But my Yacht Club, The membership as gone UP from 981 to 1037 this year. I am still a member and fly the bargee although I now live here in Norway.
It one thing I do miss over here, was the spirit, fun, knowledge and friendship, I got at the yacht club members.
I suggest anyone who things yacht clubs are full of buffed up, white flanneled, brass buttoned types, should take a look at Chichester Yacht Clubs web site. www.cyc.co.uk And that includes motor boats and dinghy sailors.
No commercial, plain facts. And I make no apology for it
It one thing I do miss over here, was the spirit, fun, knowledge and friendship, I got at the yacht club members.
I suggest anyone who things yacht clubs are full of buffed up, white flanneled, brass buttoned types, should take a look at Chichester Yacht Clubs web site. www.cyc.co.uk And that includes motor boats and dinghy sailors.
No commercial, plain facts. And I make no apology for it
Mirelle
N/A
I know where you mean. But seriously...
I think that in the days when everyone had swinging moorings, a club provided the place to keep the dinghy and its oars and outboard, so almost everyone joined. Today, with many boats kept in marinas, there is less "need" for clubs.
With the exception of the club you allude to, which is well known, and perhaps two others on the whole east coast which have the same fault in a minor degree, the days of stuffiness, if they every really existed, are over.
I think that in the days when everyone had swinging moorings, a club provided the place to keep the dinghy and its oars and outboard, so almost everyone joined. Today, with many boats kept in marinas, there is less "need" for clubs.
With the exception of the club you allude to, which is well known, and perhaps two others on the whole east coast which have the same fault in a minor degree, the days of stuffiness, if they every really existed, are over.
