So, it’s time to talk about the RS21s, which, of course, leads to a debate about Club-owned boats.

What is the RS21? It is a sailboat, typically sailed by 4 crewmembers, that is designed to be raced in a One Design fleet. According to the RS21 website [https://www.rssailing.com/project/rs21onedesign] it is the “keelboat of the future” (in the immortal words of Mandy Rice-Davis, “they would say that, wouldn’t they?”).

Here’s another quote in praise of the RS21: “I think they’ve hit their marks on everything that I could see, and after 10 races on the boat, none of us were beat up at all. I’d jump on one of these little beauties anytime.” Scot Tempesta, Editor/ Publisher, Sailing Anarchy

Many yacht clubs on both sides of the Atlantic have purchased fleets and there is absolutely no doubt that having a fleet of boats in Bermuda that could be used for international events (other than the International One Designs) would be a game-changer in terms of Bermuda as a destination for sailing events. If we had such a fleet, we would have been selected as the host club for the International Women’s Keelboat Championships in 2018; we could host team racing events; colleges and other clubs could come to Bda and use the RHADC boats for winter training, bringing much needed club revenue as well as tourists. The World Match Racing Tour has expressed an interest in chartering the fleet to host match racing events in Bda, other than (and possibly in addition to) the King Edward VII Gold Cup, and there is no doubt that youth teams as well as the organizers of Grade 2 & 3 events (Gold Cup is a World Tour event, so above Grade 1 in terms of World Sailing ranking) would be interested.

So, why don’t we just go ahead and buy them?

Here are the numbers (for 6 boats):

Cost of boats landed $ 278,750
Shipping $ 10,000
Duty* $ 53,750
Charter Fee (Wednesday) $ 120,000

Net RHADC Costs $ 158,750

*we are in discussion with the BTA about the possibility of some duty relief if the boats are used for youth events.

So, the cost of this purchase to RHADC would be $158,750 – less than the bar renovation or the Boathouse roof covering. However, that cost is assuming we find 6 members who will pay $20,000 each to use the boats for Wednesday Night Racing for the next 5 years and it does NOT include the cost of maintaining these boats on a day to day basis. We are told that the price being offered to RHADC is substantially less than what other yacht clubs have paid for their fleets. When RS Sailing heard that potentially the cost of maintenance was a sticking point, they offered to fly in, at their own expense, one of their people once a year to work on the boats – but for how long? During the warranty period? Forever? And that doesn’t address day-to-day maintenance. If I am a member who has paid $20,000 to charter the boat for Wed Night Racing, I don’t want to show up on a Wed evening, only to find that the boat was used for a corporate team building exercise or for adult sailing lessons the previous day and has been left in a state not fit to go racing.

That’s always the dilemma with club-owned boats…… those that are tasked to look after the club boats inevitably look upon that responsibility as something they do when they “get around to it” or when there is nothing more important going on, or when someone makes a fuss about the state of the boats, then there is frenetic activity that falls away a few weeks later. This is a truism not just at RHADC but at almost every yacht club where I am a member or have officiated at events. The only club that I can think of where they have found a solution that really works is the Nantucket YC where their fleet of IODs (International One Designs) employs their own bosun whose sole responsibility it is to ensure that the charterers (each IOD is typically owned by a syndicate of charterers) have a boat ready to sail each time they show up at the club and the bosun’s costs are paid by the charterers, not by the club. Of course, it helps that the Nantucket YC has a membership demographic that makes ours pale into insignificance in terms of wealth, with Heinz heiresses and billionaire summer residents in abundance. The other club whose boats are always immaculately maintained is the NYYC, but their dues are substantially more than ours and they have staff in abundance.

So, sorry for the length of this letter, but this is a difficult project to truly project the costs of and we want to be as transparent as possible with the membership as to how we intend to use your funds.

Elspeth Weisberg
Commodore