46 One-Design Class Sailboat Handbook 



costs or to get equipment that all can use. Then there are the huge, non- 

 profit organizations with million-dollar properties that include swimming 

 pools, tennis courts and a Hollywoodian clubhouse. 



Somewhere in between is the typical American yacht club. It offers 

 group lessons in sailing, swimming, safety and seamanship to old and 

 young; winter programs on sailing education; dances and dinners; and 

 a summer calendar of races, cruises and social functions. You can judge 

 for yourself how vital to your sailing pleasure such clubs are. But one 

 myth deserves rebuttal: it isn't true that membership in a recognized 

 yacht club automatically gives you the right to use facilities of any other 

 club when you're cruising. Some clubs have exchange-visiting privileges, 

 and very few clubs would deny you a vacant mooring in bad weather. 



Many yacht clubs have long waiting lists of people who want to join. 

 The number of new clubs has not kept up with the increased number of 

 boats in use, which accounts for the long, prospective-membership lists. 



The greatly increasing interest in sailing, plus the lack of yacht-club 

 facilities, has led many sailors to form their own organizations, where 

 sailing is the prime activity. In many areas local communities have or- 

 ganized sailing programs and clubs. If you like to head up committees you 

 might gather a group of friends and neighbors and start your own sailing 

 club. Often such a group will purchase one or more sailboats and thereby 

 share the initial cost and maintenance. (Fleet purchases earn special dis- 

 counts.) In one small Connecticut community three young men decided 

 to start a club. A small ad in the local paper told about the boat they 

 wanted to buy and the club they wanted to organize. In less than a year 

 their new club numbered thirty-five members. 



RACING ASSOCIATIONS 



In addition to class associations and yacht clubs there are racing asso- 

 ciations which are made up of class association and/or yacht-club mem- 

 bers. The purpose of a racing association generally is to foster and de- 

 velop the interests of one-design racing craft through the supervision of 

 boat regattas for recognized one-design classes. A good example of such 

 an organization is the Small Boat Racing Association of Northern Cali- 

 fornia. To give you some idea of the operation of this organization, here 

 are its rules. 



