{"id":1947,"date":"2019-02-07T22:33:25","date_gmt":"2019-02-08T04:33:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/northernbreezessailing.com\/?p=1947"},"modified":"2021-01-12T18:00:56","modified_gmt":"2021-01-13T00:00:56","slug":"sailing-boat-clubs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/northernbreezessailing.com\/index.php\/2019\/02\/07\/sailing-boat-clubs\/","title":{"rendered":"Sailing Boat Clubs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Northern<\/a>
O’Day 28, <\/a>Adagio<\/a><\/em>, with Les Mann and WCCO Crew. See video!<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The average boat owner after the first year uses his or her\nboat eleven times per entire sailing season. Let me reintroduce the concept of Sailing\nBoat Clubs. Boat clubs have some obvious advantages. Shared or fixed costs\nwhich are in general more commensurate with usage. Massive amounts of time\nsaved doing such mundane but critically important tasks such as commissioning\nthe boat in the Spring. Think scraping, cleaning, sanding, bottom paint, carrying\nsails aboard, putting sails on the boom and roller furling unit so they work,\nreconnecting battery systems, waxing and polishing, checking fresh water\nsystems which usually need flushing, diesel tanks, stoves, refrigerators, DC\nand AC electrical. You get the idea. The checklist seems endless and since owners\ndo this once or twice a year, proficiency is not the average boat owner\u2019s\nstrong suit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then owners have slip fees, boat insurance which rarely should\nbe on your home owner\u2019s policy. Yacht club fees and sometimes parking fees.\nWhere do you store the trailer or cradle during the season? Where do you store\nthis boat in the off season? You will encounter more costs. The cost per usage\nof say my O\u2019Day 28 on Lake Minnetonka if I were the average boat owner would be\nabout $9,200 divided by eleven uses or $836.36. This equates to well over\n$150\/hour and it does not include ONE boat payment! Welcome to the world of\nboating where the wind is free. Imagine the bill if this were a 28\u2019 powerboat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cost justification issues are easy to define. Is there a\nbetter way? Generally, boaters need to ask themselves a few questions, and to\nbe not just honest, but brutally honest with themselves in the answers. Would I\nbe happy joining a sailing boat club or chartering instead of owning? Am I too\nmuch of a perfectionist to share a boat? Do I have all kinds of time and the eleven-use\naverage would not apply to me? Can I use a boat when I want to use it? What\ndoes it mean to share?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most sailors in boat clubs have a few concerns. How well is\nthe boat maintained? How easy is it to reserve and use the boat? Is the boat\ngenerally clean? Will I feel confident bringing my guests aboard? Is the area\nand marina a family friendly place? Are there cool places to take my family and\nfriends before and after we sail?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two major structural problems common to boat clubs are the\nnumber of members per boat and hidden costs per use. I knew of a sailing boat\nclub in California which had twenty-five or more members per boat. In this part\nof the country, there are approximately twenty weekends between Memorial Day\nand the end of September. Twenty-five members per boat does not add up to very\nmany \u201crealistic\u201d uses. To claim as one boat club did that anytime the boat is\nnot in use a member can use it begs the question of how available really are\nthe boats to the members? And, how does a member plan in such a \u201cuse\u201d\nenvironment? How does the boat club define a use? Is it a four-hour block of\ntime? Is it all day? These are important issues for potential boat club\nmembers. In the area of hidden costs, some boat clubs charge a membership fee\nand then a per use fee as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I receive questions about our boat clubs it usually\nstarts with accessibility because we also run a sailing school which uses the\nsame boats. We have chosen to define boat club uses as four-hour windows in\ngeneral while maintaining some flexibility for members when that doesn\u2019t quite\nwork. We also limit memberships to five full time equivalents per boat. That\nmeans two half memberships equal one full membership. This allows Northern\nBreezes to use the boats for classes a few evenings and Saturday \u2013 Sunday mornings.\nIf no classes are scheduled, we free the boats up on weekend mornings as well.\nMembers rarely complain about their ability to use a boat. The reservation\nsystem is transparent and easy to access online. Members receive an email\nconfirmation immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the area of cleanliness and functionality (everything\nworks), scheduling and cooperation from members and sailing instructors is\ncritical to obtaining the best possible experiences. Our members are very good,\nvery punctual so other members are not short changed. Knowledgeable sailing\ninstructors help overcome problems and assist members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visit Northern Breezes\u2019 website to see our Lake Minnetonka, Medicine Lake and Lake St. Croix boat clubs.<\/a> Chartering will be addressed in a separate blog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Susan-Elizabeth<\/a>
Susan-Elizabeth Littlefield, WCCO aboard <\/a><\/strong>Adagio<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, Lake Minnetonka<\/a><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Northern Breezes Sailing Boat Clubs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[27,39,37,38],"class_list":["post-1947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-northern-breezes","tag-plastic-in-waterways","tag-sailing-boat-clubs","tag-wcco-adagio-video"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9IjHw-vp","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/northernbreezessailing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/northernbreezessailing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/northernbreezessailing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northernbreezessailing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northernbreezessailing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1947"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/northernbreezessailing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2988,"href":"https:\/\/northernbreezessailing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1947\/revisions\/2988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/northernbreezessailing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northernbreezessailing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northernbreezessailing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}