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Sailboat Clubs: Getting New Blood into Club

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Deric
Captain

Member Avatar

USA
408 Posts

Initially Posted - 03/17/2009 : 19:18:05

Hello Folks,

I belong to a local sailboat club. Several meetings with members of the club have focused on a theme: How to attract new members to the club?

Most of our club members are over 40 years of age. We are interested in not only getting new members, but also younger members. Diversity would make the organization much more interesting and stronger.

I'd like to read how other clubs attract new members.

Thanks,
Deric

Edited by - on

Nautiduck
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
3704 Posts

Response Posted - 03/17/2009 : 20:05:26

Our club is having similar challenges. In fact the economy has had some people leave the club and fewer joining. We are trying to have some bigger and funner events such as a full Memorial Day Weekend with races, bands, beer and wine and general festivities. We also are reaching out to the community with certain events. One is the annual wooden boat show which features everything from home built sculls to classic wooden power boats from the 1940's. The hope is that once they are at the club that folks will see the nice grounds, facilities, etc and learn more about the club. We also have a specific "junior membership" with very low cost to encourage young sailors. Also, we host the University of Oregon sailing team which provides another potential source of members.

Still, it will be a challenge until the economy turns around. For some crazy reason, some people think that sailing is a luxury!

Edited by - on

dmpilc
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
4593 Posts

Response Posted - 03/17/2009 : 23:16:31

Two summers ago, our club switched our Ladies' at the Helm program to Learners' at the Helm, on Tuesday evenings after work. There is a brief on-shore class session and then we go sailing, one experienced skipper taking 2-4 novices out for hands-on sailing. This program has been extremely successful. We've increased our membership by about 1/3. Our membership had declined from 110 to around 80, now it is back up to about 120. Two of the novices I took out last year purchased a C-22 later in the year. (On the C-25 I kept pointing out how good a C-22 is for a first boat and how the similar cockpit makes it easy to upgrade later to the C-25. Also stressed our active C-22 fleet). We encourage joining the club if the person keeps coming out and starting with the 2nd year gave priority on the boats to members first. We also eliminated an old membership requirement that one had to be a boat owner to jion the club.

Edited by - dmpilc on 03/17/2009 23:17:26

dmpilc
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
4593 Posts

Response Posted - 03/18/2009 : 13:09:01

What I could use is some tips on getting our C-25 fleet off dead center and moving again. It's a non-racing fleet and I sense that sailing is not a primary free-time objective with the other C-25 owners.

Edited by - on

Steve Milby
Past Commodore

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USA
5895 Posts

Response Posted - 03/18/2009 : 13:42:16

Each year, for about the past 20 years, our local Catalina dealer has sponsored a "Sailfest" at our lake. He provides free burgers, dogs, beans, chips, soft drinks and the like, and we make our boats available during the day to take out anyone who thinks he or she might want to learn to sail, or anyone who wants to sail on a particular kind of boat and see how it sails. The dealer invites people who come into his store. We have no organizational responsibilities, except to take people out for boat rides. The dealer has every guest sign a waiver of liability, but no problems have ever happened. There’s no charge for anything. The dealer loves it, of course, because he has a chance to get a newbie hooked on sailing and sell him a boat. Our club likes it, because it’s fun to take newbies out and introduce them to our sport, and our club has a good chance of increasing its membership. It also builds a good rapport with your dealer, who appreciates you volunteering your time and your boat in a way that might help him sell boats. In the future, when you ask him to provide a door prize for a club event, he will probably be likely to do so. Its an event that benefits everyone.

Edited by - on

aeckhart
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1709 Posts

Response Posted - 03/18/2009 : 13:49:26

For many years our club supported the local Red Cross Sailing School with instructors, small boats, and safety equipment. We usually picked up two to three members a season from the school.We are now starting to work on a similar program with the Coast Guard Auxialiary to achieve the same ends.

We are also working with the local town board to start a program similar to the Novices at the Helm program mentioned earlier. The plan is to advertise it around town and have a couple of club boats at the city dock on our club race night for people who want to crew/try out sailing.

I have been encouraging our club to have a booth at our local Annual Strawberry Festival in July and enter a float - decorated boat, in the Festival Parade and in our Bridge Fest parade. Not many want to put their time in on this idea yet though.

I also started to put together a club brochure to be placed in public areas and the local marinas and I gave talks to the local Kewanis and Rotary clubs about our club's history and activities. Very few folks new we were still around despite having been first chartered in 1893.

Several years ago we started sponsoring the return leg of the Lake Superior International Triangular Race between Dulth, Thunder Bay Ontario, Houghton (our club), and back to Duluth. We put on a big party have a small regatta with the big boats, and offer tours.

There have been opportunities and the word is gettng out. One of the things we're running into though is lethargy at the top. It's hard to get people to volunteer to run things. Those we do have don't seem to have the energy to take on new programs let alone run the ones we have.

Edited by - aeckhart on 03/18/2009 14:20:44

Prospector
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

Canada
3159 Posts

Response Posted - 03/18/2009 : 13:58:12

DavidP... You have a C-25 fleet!?!? We have a Catalina Association, I looked into joining last year, then had a heart attack when I saw the cost of their events.

I guess this ties into the families at the YC thing too. Sorry guys, but when events are $25 or $30 a head, it doesn't sound bad until you have to bring 3 kids along. For my family to attend our YC's annual dinner, racing awards night, or end of year party I am looking at $150+ per event. I found a way around it...

I became the social convenor for our club. Sure its usually someone's wife who takes on the role, but if Martha Stewart took it on at our club, there would be NOTHING that the kids were interested in, and less that we could afford.

In setting th ecalendar for our club I had the following goals:
1. Include EVERYONE - new owners, old salts, young families, retirees
2. Keep it Cheap - the most expensive events we have are around $25, and they are rare. We have a load of pot luck BBQ's, we have rft-ups, swim days, and short overnight cruises. The fireworks cruise is a hit on Canada Day. I use the social budget to sponsor events with a price tag, instead of buying awards or tablecloths.
3. Build a knowledge base - we have scheduled seminars on First Aid (per a previous thread), Cruising and GPS, and Racing. We have set up in-harbour work days especially for newbies to learn how to work on their boats. We have scheduled cruises for newbies to learn anchoring, reading conditions, etc. All this is to build confidence in new members.

our club is a very low-brow working man's club. In fact, one of my racing crew came to me from RCYC in Toronto and was quite surprised by the club. We don't have valet parking. Heck, we don't have any facilities at all.

On the upside though, we do have at least 3 young families who come immediately to mind. With a fleet of about 30 boats, thats OK. I suspect more will come.

Our membership fees are very low. Like ridiculously low. And new members get use of our fleet of CL-16's once they pass a very basic aptitude test. This means that they can start sailing as soon as they learn the basics, without buying a boat. Of course we quickly recruit them as crew on the keel boats so the Dinghy captain is forever complaining about not having enough folks to race his boats.

Once folks are on the keel boats it doesn't take long for them to get theitch to buy their own. Thats when we point out that shallow draft slips usually only have a one year wait. We have a large contingent of Sandpipers (3 of them), Tanzer 22's (four of those), and the likes. Cheap, easy boats to learn on. The owners will eventually move on up to boats in the 25 foot range, and our most senior members are only in the 30-35 foot range. Since our harbour is shallow draft (one slip can accommodate a 6ft draft), folks are limited to smallish boats. This eliminates a lot of the big boat envy, and keeps everyone on a more or less even playing field. Of course the wait for a "big boat" slip is crazy long, and so no one runs out to buy a 30 foot boat in their first year, unless they haven't done their research. (one guy did, and he is now very upset...)

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