It does seem like it is a workable idea, doesn’t it?

I’ve mentioned it in brief to a committee member, but their reaction was uncertain – it is a bit of a leap for a club to take.

I think I’ll put together something more concrete based on this discussion and see what they think. It could be a useful selling point to potential family members as well as benefiting existing members.

Well presumably all new members go through some sort of vetting/ selection process. So the membership committee can just use their discretion to choose young sailors who really do have solid racing experience based on their resumé.

Perhaps it would be more palatable to older members to limit the number of free memberships at any one time.

And going back to the question as to whether those folk should previously have been family members there, you can always give preference to former family members but still have some new blood too as long as that doesn’t exceed the “quota.”

Fair point. I think it would be a harder sell to the club and/or members, but essentially it makes sense. I’d like to see how people feel about existing young members getting free membership alongside how they feel about a completely new young member getting free membership. Perhaps we’d all agree that there’s no real difference.

There’s also the issue as to what counts as racing experience, but I think that’s probably resolvable with a bit of thought.

Why complicate it like that? Why not just offer 3 years of free membership for anyone who has racing experience and is under 25? Get an influx of good young sailors and you have 3 years to get them hooked on your club.

On the issue of people moving areas after college, I’d love to see clubs share the free memberships around – so, if a sailor moved area after college, then they could join another club and still get their free membership. Whether this is remotely feasible is another question – it would take some good cooperation between clubs, but if it kept good sailors like your sons sailing then it could be worth it.

But does it go far enough?

What about people like me who are attracted to sailing but weren’t lucky enough to have parents who sailed and so was never a family/junior member a yacht club.

And what about the people who were junior/family members of a yacht club but who are now living in a different part of the country after college? In my own family, I, my wife and both our sons settled in new areas after college and that is quite a common pattern. To be fair, my wife and I didn’t know how to sail when we were 22, but both our sons were very good sailors at 22 and would have been excellent people for a yacht club to recruit.

And the other issue is cost of boats. Are you in favor of yacht clubs providing a fleet of club-owned dinghies to attract new young members who know how to sail but can’t afford to buy a boat?