Are yacht club memberships useful for the cruising sailor ?

I have a question on yacht club memberships and their usefulness to the
cruising sailor. I have talked to many sailors who are planning on cruising
who feel that a yacht club membership will be very useful because of the
reciprocal privileges. I have not talked to or read any information from
cruisers who have been out there and had found club memberships to be
advantageous.

My question then is how important will my club membership from a small
club in San Francisco be if I am for instance cruising the coast of South
Africa? If I pull into a yacht club will someone really check my membership
or will they just be interested in seeing a cruiser from out of the area that
might have some interesting sea stories? Has anyone cruising from out of the
area been refused access to a yacht club based on not having a membership in
a club somewhere else in the world?

Opinions:

I kind of classify YCs into so snobby they don’t recognize any other
clubs even exist, Cooperative with reciprocal billing arrangements so
you can sign as a guest and have your local club bill you, clubs with
more facilities than they can pay for and welcome anyone that looks like
they can make good on the bill and YCs that are basically figments of
the patron’s and the barkeep’s imagination.  The last type is usually
the most fun.
The reciprocal clubs in the US tend to group themselves by exclusivity.
Clubs with very strict requirements and high initiation fees don’t
usually recognize the corprate chain managed clubs and vise versa.
Forign clubs tend to be a bit more egalitarian requiring only a
membership card and occasionally a letter of introduction from your
club’s reciprocity committee.
In the end, you might get a complementary night in a slip but you still
have to pay for normal usage.  The only advangage is that you get to
hobnob with the local “rich and famous”.

In my experience, (150,000 miles cruising) on 35-65 foot sailboats, (US
Maine to Texas, Caribbean, Central and South America), I have very seldom
even found yacht clubs much less had them offer reciprocal services if I
were a member of a club elsewhere.

Hence I am not a member of any yacht club other than the always friendly and
helpful cruising community at large.

If you haven’t already, check out South Beach YC in San Francisco. They
(well, OK, we) have “cruising memberships” for members who have cruised away
for $75 per year. They will want you to be a member for a reasonable period
at a regular rate before converting. That seems to me to be a reasonable
cruising investment because yacht clubs are a good way to get info quickly
on local boat yards, repair people, etc. when arriving at a new place. Low
cost beer is usually available too.

Cruising members have reported that a very few really high end clubs want
clubs to be listed on some kind of list that we’re not on, but that is rare.
We did have reported problems from a few more places before we realized we
had to put expiration dates on our membership cards. Be sure whomever you
join does this.

No, I wouldn’t join a yacht club with any expectation of it being an
advantage while cruising, even/especially in the U.S. I’ve taken advantage
of YC membership reciprocal privleges only three times in 20 years, all in
the U.S.

However if you are already a member of a club you’re kind of proud of, that
itself welcomes cruising yachts, and would like to spread your burgee around
the world, then I’d buy some extra burgees to take with you and hang them in
other clubs as a sign of the comeraderie among sailors everywhere.

Glenn is right in his assessment of many clubs and while I don’t visit other
clubs with a purpose, I’m happy to give one to another club full of
enthusiastic sailors who actually go someplace.

Most clubs worth a visit don’t care if you’re a member of another club. They
just like talking to anyone on the move and being reminded that some people
really do leave for the ‘dream cruise’.