Our local club on Puget Sound is geared toward affordability. Initiation fee of a few hundred and annual family dues are similar, an individual is lower, juniors (minors) not affiliated with adult members are maybe 75 bucks a year. Two 4 hour work party credits per year per family, or pay a fee if not completed. That just covers basic “social” membership, the club has a simple unstaffed clubhouse, waterfront deck, picnic tables and a couple gas grills. Slips at the marina have a modest to substantial waitlist depending on length. Long boats = longer wait, roughly 1-10 years. Slip fee is about 6 bucks a foot, and is based on roughly 60% of commercial rates locally. There is a requirement to be active in club sailing events to retain a slip once granted.
The state of WA charges the club a lease fee for its over water docks, typical for all marinas, so that overhead is part of the cost structure, along with property taxes. The other major cost is having sufficient funds to gradually replace older docks, which we self build at a substantial savings to commercial bids. But the permit process is complicated and expensive on its own. It’s imperative that a club build adequate capital reserves to cover such expenses over the long haul, which we have begun to do, but did not always address. The slip fees now reflect that capital reserve need. In the past they were very cheap, and there was no money to rebuild which almost ended the club.
Because of the limited marina space at our club and throughout our area, we are starting to develop a footprint of having club owned boats any member can subscribe to use. The juniors have optis, lasers, and Vanguard v15 dinghies available free, adult members can subscribe to have access to the V15 fleet for $100.00 a year, and we now have two j/70 keelboats which are available for $625.00 per year. We may move toward a small cruiser or two in years to come. The goal is to increase sailing access for all members, not just those with slips, which is perhaps 30% of membership.
We did have a surge in membership during the pandemic which has improved our balance sheet, but that has slowed. The availability of the j/70’s with racing at least once a week, and hopefully soon twice a week as the fleet expands is attracting other sailors to the club too. Those boats are quite expensive to buy, so the $625.00 per year fee makes it appealing to join the club and then get to sail a modern boat for half the cost of annual moorage alone. We did buy used ones, and the fee includes cost recovery to the club reserves, dock space, and long term upkeep.
In general clubs in our area have very widely varying cost structures based on provided infrastructure. Some have staffed facilities and outstations throughout Puget Sound and into Canada and are VERY expensive, others are modest to join, but require purchase of marina slips if you want to keep a boat there, etc. To compare apples to apples, on needs to evaluate the infrastructure and any government imposed costs on the operation which may vary greatly by jurisdiction and salt vs fresh water.
) about some of the time period and facilities.
