Yacht club membership

R

Roger K Sterling

Active Member
Oct 23, 2021
203
Boat Info
2000 Sea Ray 240 Sundancer
Engines
Mercruiser 5.0L, Bravo II, Thunderbolt V ignition
Can someone give me advice about joining a yacht club where there is no dock power only running water to each slip.
 
I guess it depends on your usage pattern. If you leave it in the slip, you'll have to use the boat often enough and run your engines long enough on each trip to keep your batteries topped up. Otherwise you are in for some drama.
 
Do you plan to overnight frequently? Do you care about having the AC running? That's a bit of a big deal for many of us that spend most/all weekends on the boat. I like being out on the hook, don't get me wrong, but if I'm in a marina that AC is cranked...and I will be taking hot showers :)
 
I would join the club for the potential of all that it offers and keep the boat somewhere else where you have power and water to each slip.

We joined our first club ~20 years ago. It's in a city where many of the people are retired engineers and scientists. The club had a couple hundred members but only 50 or so were at the meetings and events. The bylaws and standing rules were about 1.5" thick and covered every possible happening.

Nobody there used their boats. I was the "Cruise Director" for two years and planned 3-4 cruises every year. The cruises were not long ones, usually only about 10-20 miles. Only about 2-3 boats showed up.

We quit that club ~10 years ago when every meeting ended up in a shouting match.

When we boated we boated with members of a nearby club so after we quit the first club we joined the second club. It's fun, there are lots of events, the people are friendly and their bylaws are only a few pages.

They have about 300 members, about 75-100 show up at meetings, 150-200 show up at parties and most of the time a good time is had by all. Since we sold Beachcomber we're now Social Members. We can do everything except vote on issues and elections.

My advice, find a club where people are around your age, own boats similar in size to yours and where the social class is similar to where you view yourselves, then be active members and have fun.
 
Gofirstclass said:
I would join the club for the potential of all that it offers and keep the boat somewhere else where you have power and water to each slip.

We joined our first club ~20 years ago. It's in a city where many of the people are retired engineers and scientists. The club had a couple hundred members but only 50 or so were at the meetings and events. The bylaws and standing rules were about 1.5" thick and covered every possible happening.

Nobody there used their boats. I was the "Cruise Director" for two years and planned 3-4 cruises every year. The cruises were not long ones, usually only about 10-20 miles. Only about 2-3 boats showed up.

We quit that club ~10 years ago when every meeting ended up in a shouting match.

When we boated we boated with members of a nearby club so after we quit the first club we joined the second club. It's fun, there are lots of events, the people are friendly and their bylaws are only a few pages.

They have about 300 members, about 75-100 show up at meetings, 150-200 show up at parties and most of the time a good time is had by all. Since we sold Beachcomber we're now Social Members. We can do everything except vote on issues and elections.

My advice, find a club where people are around your age, own boats similar in size to yours and where the social class is similar to where you view yourselves, then be active members and have fun.
Click to expand...

It's interesting getting the perspective from folks who use boating as a social outlet. For my part, I got into boating for the opportunities it afforded to get away from pesky humans. My one boating buddy, on the other hand, is quite the social butterfly. He is always trying to drag me to this yacht club mixer or that yacht club cruise. He also shares the stories of the club politics that are inherent in any such gaggle of humans.

Each to their own, I suppose. I don't judge him, and he don't judge me.
 
Gofirstclass said:
I would join the club for the potential of all that it offers and keep the boat somewhere else where you have power and water to each slip.

We joined our first club ~20 years ago. It's in a city where many of the people are retired engineers and scientists. The club had a couple hundred members but only 50 or so were at the meetings and events. The bylaws and standing rules were about 1.5" thick and covered every possible happening.

Nobody there used their boats. I was the "Cruise Director" for two years and planned 3-4 cruises every year. The cruises were not long ones, usually only about 10-20 miles. Only about 2-3 boats showed up.

We quit that club ~10 years ago when every meeting ended up in a shouting match.

When we boated we boated with members of a nearby club so after we quit the first club we joined the second club. It's fun, there are lots of events, the people are friendly and their bylaws are only a few pages.

They have about 300 members, about 75-100 show up at meetings, 150-200 show up at parties and most of the time a good time is had by all. Since we sold Beachcomber we're now Social Members. We can do everything except vote on issues and elections.

My advice, find a club where people are around your age, own boats similar in size to yours and where the social class is similar to where you view yourselves, then be active members and have fun.
Click to expand...

Words of Wisdom, Thank You!
 
Thank you all for your replies, great advise all around!
 
bobeast said:
It's interesting getting the perspective from folks who use boating as a social outlet. For my part, I got into boating for the opportunities it afforded to get away from pesky humans. My one boating buddy, on the other hand, is quite the social butterfly. He is always trying to drag me to this yacht club mixer or that yacht club cruise. He also shares the stories of the club politics that are inherent in any such gaggle of humans.

Each to their own, I suppose. I don't judge him, and he don't judge me.
Click to expand...

We boat for the same reasons as you - the be away from other people. The only other people we boat with regularly are my wife’s parents.

I sure do appreciate the yacht clubs though. I got my slip because the former occupant wanted more social boating scene then possible with our little marina. If they hadn’t wanted to be at a club, I’d still be on a mooring.
 
bobeast said:
It's interesting getting the perspective from folks who use boating as a social outlet. For my part, I got into boating for the opportunities it afforded to get away from pesky humans. My one boating buddy, on the other hand, is quite the social butterfly. He is always trying to drag me to this yacht club mixer or that yacht club cruise. He also shares the stories of the club politics that are inherent in any such gaggle of humans.

Each to their own, I suppose. I don't judge him, and he don't judge me.
Click to expand...

The first club we joined was strictly out of convenience as I was a first time boat owner an this place was well protected from wind and no current so the docking was easy. I had no intention of looking for another place initially, but after the first couple weekends, that changed. Puke on the cat walks and peolple passed out at the pool can be a bit of a turn off. We did meet some great people there and if I was 25 and single, I would have probably would have stayed!

We moved to a club which is primarily a racing sailboat club but power boats have grown from about 20% of the membership to 45% over the 10 years we have been there. We now have a power boat 'fleet' that takes trips to the Lake Erie Islands and other Lake Erie destinations a few times a year and some of the sail boaters now regularly roll out with us on the trips. The place has bands and parties at least a few times a month and we have a great time with the friends we have made there. We have been drafted in to doing volunteer work to help out with the sail boat races and have had a great time doing it.

What ever you decide, enjoy!
 
I was a member of a yacht club when I was married. We kept the boat slipped at the marina where the yacht club was. It was fun, for a short period of time, until all of the drama and drinking came. I was elected Secretary, which was basically glorified note taker at the monthly meetings, where the cigarettes smoke probably took 5 years off of my life.

We did do some fun events, like an annual Shrimp Festival, Halloween party, Black Tie event, help this person out kind of thing, but overall the drama and too much drinking was an issue for me. Now the wife on the other hand...

I would join one again for boating trips/cruises only.
 
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Actually I was a member of Goose Harbor YC for 3 years and it was fun, best part was the annual Saturday we took out handicap and mentally challenged kids on all members boats for a day of swimming and fishing; that was great.
Left club cause the marina was too exposed to storms, flooding, piers underwater, etc. moved up river to more protected marina.
 
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