Membership

MEMBERS DUTIES

All Members, including Social Members, are required to do one or more duties to help the Club operate. This duty may be in the race hut, as a rescue officer, galley helper or parking marshal. We make an exception for one partner in a Family Membership that has very young children.

Duties will be allocated for the 12 month period 1st May to 30th April. The type of duty you get allocated will be taken from information you have supplied to us regarding your skills. If you are unable to be present at the Club on the date allocated to you, you should arrange a swap with another Member who has been allocated the same type of duty. Please advise the Club Administrator who you have swapped with. Not turning up for a duty compromises the entire days sailing activity and places a huge burden on other Members and staff at the Club, Members who fail to show up for their allocated duty or drop out within 14 days of their duty date, (unless a replacement is found to stand in) will be fined. The Management Committee have the discretion of waving this fine in exceptional circumstances, but may ask you to attend a meeting to state any valid reason for letting down the Club. If the fine is not paid within 30 days, it will be added to your renewal fee the following year. Failure to discharge the fine will result in Membership being cancelled.

DUTY PREFERENCE

When you first join the Club and at each renewal time you will be asked for your duty preferences. Please see below for further details on the types of duty to help you choose how you may best help the Club. The Club may alter your duty types after reviewing your duty qualifications.

Principal Race Officer – Although this includes setting the course, help is always available from more experienced Members. If you are also happy to run Open events please let us know.

Assistant Race Officer – No experience in setting a course is necessary, but has an interest in sailing and will be logging boats as they finish each lap.

Safety Boat Skipper – Must hold an RYA Safety Boat certificate.

Safety Boat Assistant – Must hold an RYA Powerboat Level 2 certificate.

Galley Assistant/General helper – No previous experience is necessary. Roles may include helping in the galley serving Members drinks and taking orders for food, acting as a Parking Marshal on a busy Sunday morning during the summer or generally being on site to assist where needed on the day.

RACE OFFICER AND SAFETY BOAT DUTIES

The Club is frequently short of Race Officers and qualified Safety Boat drivers. This has led to a change in how we offer Club Race Officer and RYA Powerboat Level 2 or RYA Safety Boat courses to you (please note that you need to complete the RYA Powerboat Level 2 course before you can enrol on the RYA Safety Boat course). From this year to encourage you our Members to become qualified in order to help the Club we will be offering these courses effectively free. If you wish to attend any of the above courses, there will be an initial fee of £40 per course per person. On completion of the course you will be allocated a duty (this may mean shadowing someone else initially). On attending your duty, a credit will be made against your record which shall be deducted from the following years renewal fee (a cash alternative is not available). To book any course, please contact the office.

It is hoped that each Member should do no more than 2 duties per year; however your flexibility in this matter is greatly appreciated.

WORK PARTY

Each year the Club also has at least one work party where we try and get as many Members as possible to the site to have a general tidy up. Tasks often involve cutting down brambles, strimming the grass, trimming hedgerows, painting the Club House, painting fences, litter picking, clearing the shrubbery from the islands and anything else that needs doing. Whatever your ability or fitness level, we can find a job for you!

A Club like Spinnaker is largely run by volunteers and there are always jobs both large and small which need doing. If you have spare time or run a company which Spinnaker Club may benefit from its services we are always happy to hear from you. In the first instance please contact our Rear Commodore House.