A new sailing club, and a question of yearly dues

[Six Bells]

A little over a year ago, I moved from a city to a lakeside community and having sailed my Montgomery 15 a number of times on this lake, I came across a few trailer sailors enjoying the lake that is mostly powerboats and jet skis.  I also saw many an old sailing dinghy or sailboat sitting in a sorry state on property around the lake.  Given there is no local sailing club I decided with the aid of a friend to set up a new one to serve the local communities (there are 4 lakes connected through a local river system).  Having just incorporated this as a not for profit membership club, I am exploring becoming a member of the provincial and national sailing associations, to help grow the club, offer learn to sail courses in conjunction with these associations and host regattas, and in general promote sailing to all ages and backgrounds.

A question arises - cost of membership.  The friend thinks this should be free.  While this would be ideal, I've quickly realised setting up a bank account for the club means there are fees associated with everything we'd do, the national and provincial sailing associations charge fees for each member the new club will have, there are yearly submissions relating to government regulations, and the list of expenses goes on.  Volunteering is an important part of my wanting to organise the club, and seeing I've met 6 or 7 sailors in the last year, I am hoping all will join.  Likewise, one aim is to try and encourage those with sailboats sitting idle to learn how to sail them, and/or repair and perhaps create a bigger sailing community.

As of today we have no club house, boat storage or any of those things that sailing and yacht clubs typically offer, but we have 4 excellent lakes with good boat ramps and parking, toilets, and beach facilities to serve these, supported by local communities, all within a 30-40 minutes drive.  I hope with time the club could grow, maybe start having club boats for use of members, and perhaps we could rent some space for a club house. All future aspirations!

May I ask your thoughts on a reasonable membership cost please?  What are your experiences.  I've reviewed some of the other sailing clubs in my and neighbouring Provinces, and they charge a hefty yearly sum (many hundreds of $) plus more (hundreds of $) if you don't contribute to club activities and maintenance with your time and efforts.  Moreover the cost of affiliation with the Provincial sailing organisation is $30 per member, per year, which then open some doors for our new club.  This would be one membership benefit as they offer insurance for approved events, like regattas.

My apologies for the lengthy post. Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Ian

[Brian N.]

Curious if the sailing clubs that you investigated have property and marina facilities? These can greatly add to the cost of membership. Even without membership in a regional or national sailing/boating organization, they still might advise you as a goodwill gesture. Monthly meetings for a couple of organizations/clubs that I belong to are at VFW halls for a modest rental fee. Also, don't forget about sponsors which can include local business owners, individuals, and even other sailing/boating organizations/clubs. Best of luck to you.   

[Six Bells]

Hello Brian, thank you for your helpful reply and insight, and also on potential sponsors.
Of the provincial clubs I've reviewed most have modest club facilities. Such as renting space from a local town council for a storage hut and fenced off compound to keep their sailing dinghies.
I have looked at others too, that like our club, have no facilities of any kind.
None of these are located at marinas.  Nearly all primarily serve a racing/dinghy type of sailing community.  Despite the variation, the membership fees seemed comparable. But I appreciate there are greater costs when club facilities grow.

My hopes were to better serve the trailer-sailor community, and indeed others interested in sailing. 

[noelH]

We have one non-profit community based sailing organization up here.  North Coast Community Sailing.  It is now part of bayfieldrec.org.  The City of Washburn has given use of area that locals use to call "Bare Ass Beach" on the side of Thompson's West End Park towards the City of Washburn Marina.  Off season storage of boats is provided by the Marina.  Basically significant costs have been reduced with Bayfield Rec handling staffing and other management costs.  City of Washburn providing facilities. Might be reflected in their annual membership fees and tuition for classes. 

It's relatively inexpensive for classes.  Just Opti, Club 420, and a few Sonars. The Madeline Island Yacht Club and others have provided donations for scholarships and cost offsets for those who qualify.  Primarily a youth program.  Some adult classes if staffing allows.  An issue has been to find US Sail certified instructors.  They more or less have phased out scheduled adult classes due to staffing shortages. But, they still allow NCCS members and donors to use the boats if certified and if available.

Check out their webpage for what NCCS charges.  Not sure if they list fees for Sonar rental.  7-8 years ago it was free use  a NCCS member.   Membership was IIRC $120 for the season.

[Noemi - Ensenada 20]

Here in land-locked Indiana, the Lafayette Sailing Club is located in the front yard of a sailor who loved looking at masts (sadly, passed on, but his wife continues to let them use the space).  The ramp there is also the public access ramp for the neighborhood.  There are no facilities but a shed in which are kept masts and such for a few small club boats.  The club rents a porta-potti for the summer, which is serviced regularly.  There are wooden walkways around the rectangular "bay", maintained by the club, to which they have added cleats for tying off boats during events.  All storage is in the yard, on trailers. 

This seems to be just a few steps above what you have there.  The LSC charges $325 a year for a full, voting, membership with harbor privileges for a boat.  Prices are lower for people who don't keep a boat there, new members, new sailors, youth, etc. 

[pgandw]

Just my thoughts, probably not worth much at all.

• Offering a place to launch, and where I could store my boat mast up on the trailer would be the premier attraction you could offer.
• In most clubs I have been a member of (not just marine), the affiliation with higher level groups (provincial, state, national) seldom returned any real bang for the buck.  If some members want that affiliation, there is usually a way to do it individually instead of making the whole group pay
• If you could offer sailing lessons and/or seminars at low cost, again that would be a plus.  Certifications and affiliations again seldom offer enough return for the extra cost.
• Keep it as much of a family-oriented, low key, locally-focused organization as you possibly again will make the group more attractive to belong to.
• Don't forget to add in insurance for any facilities, and liability insurance for those making decisions and those doing physical work for the club

Remember, at some time the founders and initial set of officers/volunteers will be burnt out, physically incapable, aged out, or just plain tired of it.  If you haven't grown new leaders, the group will fold.  That's real life.

Again, just my thoughts and experiences, feel free to ignore.

Fred W

[Six Bells]

Noemi, Noel, Fred and Brian,
Thank you for these helpful ideas and insights. It is great to hear about how other clubs operate and some of the initiatives and plans we need to consider going forward.
Much appreciated
Ian

[Norm L.]

My thought would be a lot of paperwork. That is, sitting with as many people interested to voluntarily take portions to do research. You want the final answer that would fit you.

Everything you want to do will have some cost. It may just be the cost of material for management, as simple as paper and ink for printers. Yes you can get that voluntarily.
Can you get an attorney to write the legal side of a simple organization? Will you need insurance for the liability side? Can an attorney find a way to avoid that?

When I owned a boat with an attorney friend he filed and got the MANY MOONS LLC.

If all of your research tells you this plan will cost $100 a year, then you know 10 members can be at $10 a year. If you can show interested people that for 10 people it is $10 it should be possible to have them agree to  $15 a year understanding this could help cover growth.
It may be difficult for you to just come out and tell people for $1 (add zeros of your choice) you are going to offer....

Like any business, even one by volunteers, you should have an idea how much will come out of pockets to build. 

[Six Bells]

Thank you Norm, I appreciate your helpful suggestions too.
Best wishes
Ian

[Seorah]

Free membership is a nice idea, but  not realistic long-term.  Even with volunteers, those association fees add up fast.  I'd suggest a low, affordable annual fee – maybe 50−75 to start.  That covers some basic admin costs and helps you join the provincial association.  You could offer a reduced rate for families or those who volunteer regularly.

[Six Bells]

Thank you Seorah.

[Brian S]

Our club is similar in that we meet informally at a state park, so the only property we own is a small pontoon boat for race committee, a chase boat, and some small half-sheds for assorted equipment. We have a lease agreement with the state for 6 Sunfish sailboats, 4-up trailer and single trailers. We've also decided the Sunfish are popular enough to take in a member's former Sunfish, so we actually own one. We have 2 pressure washers for club use at haulout weekend. Our club has an interesting legacy of a merge between a racing club, and yachting club, so we have 2 membership tiers of Racing and Cruising. Cruising currently costs $60/yr and Racing $120/yr. We generally trend to just cover our expenses, and many members have contributed to a "capital fund" which has been fortunate over the years, as 2 years ago we replaced our two old 2-stroke outboards with more efficient and reliable brand new 4 stroke outboards. We have 3 banquets per year, with a Spring Warm-up held just before the season starts which is paid by attendees, a summer picnic to coincide with an all-club regatta, which is club-paid, and a Fall Banquet with awards ceremony that is typically subsidized by the club $25-35 per attendee.

We have other expenses such as insurance, which is the biggest one, through a program by US Sailing. We have to pay for slips in the state marina for the 2 boats, and registration for the 2 boats. The park usually comps us launch permits for the 7 Sunfish because we try to do some kind of service project for the park each year. We also have website hosting fees, as well as PayPal fees so that we can pay dues and fees for banquets and such on-line with PayPal acting as our credit card processor.

One thing we learned is that there are additional insurance premiums for instruction, and that since it's a program through US Sailing, we need to have at least one US Sailing certified instructor in the program in order to be able to run instruction programs. This is unfortunate, because the US Sailing instructor certifications are much more expensive and fewer than similar programs through the American Sailing Association. Sadly, ASA doesn't have the insurance programs that we need. We learned all this when our US Sailing instructor decided to go on a circumnavigation, so we had to shut down our formal classes.

Overall, I think you're going to need to charge some dues. If you want to do instruction, you'll definitely need insurance, and I think insurance if you do any racing programs. If you want to do maintenance and instruction like that, insurance is important in case someone hurts themself with a tool or otherwise.

[Norm L.]

The U.S. Sailing certification is a big item. I volunteered at the sailing group that has numerous lessons for people with varied handicaps, from children to military veterans. I posted a photo of Finn sailing and loving it.
 
They would take me if I had the certification. I told them I would volunteer to weekly inspect the boats and keep rolling maintenance records. They only welcomed me if I had the U.S. Sailing papers. It was upsetting for me.

[Thesharonmatic]

Ian,
I'm part of a sailing club called the Potter Yachters (See website here). We are technically a yacht club. The club was formed years ago for folks with West Wight Potter sailboats, but since the 90's, folks have joined with many other trailable sailboats. We don't have any facilities or club boats at all. We are mostly located in Northern California and there is a Southern club as well. We organize sails all around California that members can participate in.
Several years ago, we became concerned about liability issues and began to look around for some kind of insurance policy. This may be something you could look into. I don't know if Canada has the same sort of problems that the US has in that respect. Anyway, our solution was to incorporate as a 503c7 club, and join PICYA and US Sailing. I'm not sure who we buy the insurance through, but it is pretty pricey and we now set our membership dues to help cover the cost of this insurance each year.
Sharon