FOR BOAT OWNERS
It works both ways
The club gets described as a way for people without boats to get afloat. It’s also the reason a good many owners get out more than they otherwise would.
CREW FOR THE RALLIES
People who want to be there
Rallies happen because owners bring boats, and the club’s job is to make that worth doing. You get crew who have put their names down rather than been talked into it, a programme fixed months ahead with the berths and the Saturday dinner already booked, and company on passage — which is the part most owners say they miss sailing alone.
Crew share the berthing, the fuel and the food. Nobody expects a free weekend on your boat.
What’s asked of you is small: say early in the season which rallies you’re doing and how many berths you have, and take the crew you’re matched with. A fair number of them come back.
A HAND WITH THE BOAT
Ask the room first
There are members here who have bought well, bought badly, and kept boats on the south coast for thirty years. All of them will talk about it at length, and none of them are selling you anything.
Bring the advert on a Thursday. Somebody will have an opinion about it before you’ve finished reading it out.
If you are thinking of buying
Ask the room before
you sign anything
There are members here who have bought well, bought badly, and kept boats on the south coast for thirty years. All of them will talk about it at length, and none of them are selling you anything.
The questions worth asking before the price is agreed are the ones about the years afterwards: what it costs to keep a boa that size afloat for a year, what a survey will and won’t tell you, and whether the boat you’ve found suits the sailing you actually intend to do rather than the sailing you’re currently imagining.
The cheapest advice you will ever get about buying a boat is
free, on a Thursday, from someone who already owns one.
Bring the advert. Somebody will have an opinion about it before you’ve finished reading it out.