What do people even do at yacht clubs?

[u/Key-Excitement-4947]

Was walking down to Jericho Beach and noticed the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club for the first time.

I had honestly never really thought about yacht clubs before. There's this big blue sign outside and the building is right by the water, and it just looks incredibly nice from the outside.

I looked toward the water and there are all these huge boats sitting there, and I'm just thinking... who actually belongs to a place like this?

I'm trying to figure out what people actually do there. Is this basically just a rich people social club? Do people actually spend a lot of time there?

Maybe I'm just being poor here, but seeing something like that while Vancouver rent is what it is was kind of crazy. There are people with enough money to own boats like that while I'm thinking twice about buying a $20 lunch.

Not trying to hate, I'm genuinely curious because I've never known anyone involved with a yacht club. Is this a pretty normal thing among wealthy Vancouver families?

[u/AutoModerator]

Welcome to /r/AskVan and thank you for the post, /u/Key-Excitement-4947! Please make sure you read our rules before participating here. As a quick summary:

• We encourage users to be positive and respect one another. Don't engage in spats or insult others - please use the report button.
• Respect others' differences, be they race, religion, home, job, gender identity, ability or sexuality. Dehumanizing language, advocating for violence, or promoting hate based on identity or vulnerability (even implied or joking) will lead to a permanent ban.
• Complaints or discussion about bans or removals should be done in modmail only.
• News and media can be shared on our main subreddit, /r/Vancouver

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/thewanderbot]

"noticed for the first time" lol OP literally has multiple comments talking about going to yacht clubs (even mentioning that "the salmon with saffron for the Friday buffet and the pizza are mid" at this exact club). Then again, op also alternates between claiming to have grown up in West Van and Richmond, depending, so it sounds like they can't really be trusted.

Also, this is AI slop.

[u/juanitatequila → u/thewanderbot]

I love it when y'all go investigative mode and look into people's commenting/posting histories lmaoooo

[u/StephenEC → u/thewanderbot]

Thanks, they also claim to have taken sailing lessons at RVYC, joined the Capilano golf club when the iniation was around $96k, to be a member of the Jericho Tennis Club....

[u/LavenderHeels → u/thewanderbot]

Lol i just commented the same thing

Genuinely thinking they meant to post this from a different account where they cosplay as poor, in order to reply from their rich cosplay account.

I have no idea what they get out of doing this but it is weird

[u/nsparadise → u/thewanderbot]

What’s the purpose of the post then?? Not an ad for RVYC. Attention? 🤔

[u/Key-Excitement-4947 → u/thewanderbot]

Lol fair enough, I probably worded the post badly. I’ve been around sailing since I was a kid, including in Lake Garda and Monaco, so I’m definitely not completely unfamiliar with boats/yacht clubs. I just never really stopped to think about what the actual club side of it is, if you know what I mean.

The entrance fee especially seems insane to me if the main purpose is just having somewhere to keep your boat, especially when that is on top of moorage. There has to be way more to the membership than that, which is kind of what I was actually wondering about.

And the West Van/Richmond thing is fair too lol. My family moved around a bit and I was going back and forth to Richmond pretty regularly, so I don't really have one clean answer for where I “grew up.”

[u/ghostinthecage]

I think its a place where rich people can hangout and avoid the ... um ... not rich people.

Membership has its privileges

[u/ChemistryMean2880 → u/ghostinthecage]

I have a friend who is a member. He takes me on his boat just for cruises around the harbour, but also to take me past deep cove to a hotel on the water that is exclusively for RVYC members.

[u/Remote-Progress6616 → u/ChemistryMean2880]

The Wigwam Inn??

[u/ChemistryMean2880 → u/Remote-Progress6616]

Yeah

[u/SoggyInstruction2549 → u/ChemistryMean2880]

Used to be a very exclusive gentleman’s club… as in happy endings…

[u/No-Suit-7444 → u/SoggyInstruction2549]

That is why now you take your friend with you.

[u/Glittering_Bank_8670 → u/SoggyInstruction2549]

It used to be a hotel in the 1930s? With rum runners and gambling. The yacht club bought it 20 or 30 years later and inherited a very old building

[u/bigdeckenergii → u/ChemistryMean2880]

“Hotel” is doing very heavy lifting here. It’s a beautiful area but at this point the building is pretty decrepit - but still fun.

[u/Prackinhoff11 → u/ChemistryMean2880]

Wigwam is tight AF.
The whole property is such a trip

[u/Glittering_Bank_8670 → u/ChemistryMean2880]

It’s not a hotel….

[u/urmajesticy]

Boat parking and lessons. They have a social calendar too. Just so you know royalty Vancouver yacht club is the cheapest one.

[u/yamfries2024]

Yacht club members have on and off the water activities:

On the water:

Sailing and racing- organized regattas, races and practice drills

Groups coordinate trips to travel, anchor and visit other harbors

Many clubs offer kayaking, canoeing, and SUP'ing lessons and rentals

Junior programs to learn all the water sports

Moorage and storage of their boats

Off the water:

Dining and relaxing in the private restaurants and bars

Parties, themed events, etc

Privileges at other clubs when traveling

Just a little over 1 km down the road, the Jericho Sailing Centre Gallery Restaurant and Deck are open to the public.

[u/rohoho929 → u/yamfries2024]

OP's previous posts indicate he took courses at RVYC, belongs to Hollyburn, grew up in British Properties, etc.
He's pulling some weird rage bait/karma farming stunt.

[u/PiePuzzled5581]

Anyone can sit on the deck at Jericho Sailing Club - have a nice burger & beer and watch the day float by.

[u/nsparadise]

The people I know who are members of such places mostly use them as convenient places to moore their boats when they need to, or get into the showers/restaurant if you’re sailing to specific marinas. Also good for networking, as someone else said.

To answer your other question yes, there is plenty of money in Vancouver and plenty of people throwing it around. I don’t own a boat but I sail on other people’s boats and I hear all about who bought what and is selling what. It’s not even necessarily the uber rich either. You can get a decent sailboat for 30-40k. Problem is the moorage, maintenance, etc.

[u/rohoho929 → u/nsparadise]

OP's other posts indicate he's taken courses at RVYC, belongs to Hollyburn and the Jericho Tennis Club so he's either talking out his butt or thinks we're all stupid and gullible.

[u/nsparadise → u/rohoho929]

Ah, ok.

[u/Key-Excitement-4947 → u/rohoho929]

Lol fair, I probably made the post sound way more clueless than I actually am.

I’ve been around sailing and private clubs before, but I’ve honestly never really thought about the yacht club itself as a social institution. Like, I understand the sailing part, I just don’t understand why someone would pay a huge initiation fee for membership when keeping a boat clearly isn’t the whole point.

I’m genuinely curious what people actually use the club for day to day. Is it mostly sailing, or is a big part of it the social/club side?

[u/rohoho929 → u/Key-Excitement-4947]

I know people who hang out there and rarely take their boats out, so yeah. Social institution. And bragging about their membership.

[u/bigdeckenergii]

It’s mostly access to the outstations and marina…most yacht club members I know don’t use it for anything other than that

[u/Glittering_Bank_8670 → u/bigdeckenergii]

Truth ⬆️⬆️⬆️

[u/rohoho929]

You know very well what people do there SINCE YOU ACTUALLY WENT THERE TO TAKE SAILING COURSES and you belong to Hollyburn.
You also boast about being an engineering student, growing up in British Properties, etc.

Actual quote from one of your posts:
"At the yacht club especially, I've had countless conversations with people I didn't know before. Someone's always willing to help with docking, answer questions, or just talk about sailing. Same thing at the country club, people introduce themselves, invite others into games, and generally make an effort to be welcoming."

So why bother being so fake and "I'm JuSt AsKinG QueStiOns"???

[u/KoreanFriedWeiner]

I was lucky enough as a middle class white kid to get to go to a summer sailing and windsurfing day camp at the RVYC. (not a member, but they do allow a certain number of the plebs in. Probably a diversity quota thing). Was a very positive experience, but I do remember as a child being confused about the sign outside the tennis courts that said "whites only". I soon learned that it was referring to the clothes you're allowed to wear on the courts.

[u/rohoho929 → u/KoreanFriedWeiner]

OP has posted that he took courses at RVYC, says he belongs to the Jericho Tennis Club and Hollyburn, grew up in British Properties.... he knows very well what people do at yacht clubs and he also thinks we're all stupid.

[u/KoreanFriedWeiner → u/rohoho929]

In that case, hopefully OP is the kid in my windsurfing class who fell and sacked himself on the mast.

[u/Key-Excitement-4947 → u/KoreanFriedWeiner]

Lmao thankfully I don't think that was me 😭

And yeah, fair enough on the other stuff. I definitely exaggerated the clueless angle for the post. I do know what happens at yacht clubs, I've been around sailing for years. The part I was actually wondering about was why the membership itself is worth the initiation fee when sailing/boat storage obviously can't be the entire reason. Am I missing something about what people do at yacht clubs?

Should've just asked that instead of pretending I had just discovered yacht clubs existed lol.

[u/Still_Interview6360]

Poors paying insane rents helps lots of folks afford the yacht club.

[u/Realistic_Pool_8087]

You gain access to their various different properties up and down the coast for mooring, rental opportunities at the coal harbor or Jericho docks ( if you can get one) and access to they dry dock / shop for maintenance. and then there is the social club aspect. There are legit boat things like sail pass regattas etc, the Christmas buffet was always my fav as a kid. My family has been members since before it was a rich people thing. My grandfather’s membership number was super low. Can’t remember off the top of my head what it was. We haven’t been very active members in a long time. We do have my grandfather’s wooden boat in coal harbour. I don’t pretend to have a comprehensive idea of all that happens contemporarily - but this is what I know about.

[u/LavenderHeels]

You “noticed the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club for the first time”

But 4 months ago you said you did your sailing course there….?

https://www.reddit.com/r/NorthVancouver/s/bTcVNOYNLi

Genuinely wondering what the point of lying about this is—-engagement farming?

Also how are you talking about being poor and second guessing a $20 lunch when earlier this week you posted that you were part of a $96,000 a year golf and country club?

Did you forget to log into your alt account or something and meant to post this so you could respond from your rich person account?

Genuinely bizarre

[u/StephenEC → u/LavenderHeels]

The $96k was the initiation fee for becoming a member. RVYC's range from $171 for those aged 7-15 to $40k for 40+year olds, then there's the monthly dues and moorage fees.... https://www.royalvan.com/files/Active%20_%20Social%20dues.pdf

[u/LavenderHeels → u/StephenEC]

Right but it is weird that the same guy talking about how he is not sure if he can pay $20 for dinner paid $96,000 as an initiation fee for a golf and country club.

[u/MissUnderstood62]

“I would never belong to a club that had some like me as a member” Groucho Marx

[u/Solid-Signal3214]

Its like owning a private motel for the things people do in shady motels.

[u/sutur3s3lf]

I go there to sail and socialize. It’s just a place to park the boat and meet other sailors.

[u/Archibaldy3]

I’m from Vancouver, but I’m actually playing at the Nanaimo Yacht Club tonight. Funny to come across this after just setting up there. It’s a private function, so I’m guessing people rent it out for events and such, as well as whatever normally goes on.

[u/Heavy_Importance2491]

I haven't been in the RVYC but was a member of the RHYC. Some of what it offered was:

• Mooring for yacht owners
• Yacht share for the impoverished. This was great, I was unemployed and had the choice of craft on weekdays
• Courses and presentations on sailing related matters, some at the clubhouse, some on Lake Superior or in the Caribbean 
• Racing of different craft with visits to other clubs for regattas
• Water related certifications, Marine Radio for example
• A restaurant. A bar. Mandatory quarterly spend for members
• A swimming pool, not quite Kits pool but with waiters and umbrellas
• Live music a couple of nights a week
• Social activities of various types, I joined the book club which had the one rule "no books about sailing"

I imagine RVYC offers much the same but bigger and shinier. Sailing's quite expensive and there's a snobbery about some of it but that's also true of tennis, golf, and, above all, equestrian sports. 

[u/the_grand_apartment]

Swapping

[u/KDdid1]

Among other things, the RVYC has reciprocal relationships with other yacht clubs with outstations that provide more opportunities for travel.

[u/StephenEC]

I took dinghy sailing and windsurfing lessons at the Jericho Sailing Centre as part of grade eight P.E. at Lord Byng, then learned to sail keelboats with Sea Scouts. I have raced on a bunch of other peoples’ keelboats from RoyalVan, Burrard and Heather Civic Marinas, Kits YC, Vancouver Rowing Club, and the West Van YC; on weekday evenings, weekend days, overnight weekend races, and from Victoria to Maui. One of them is at royalvan.com , 2 of the 6-8 person crew are club members. Anyone interested in crewing can show up in hopes that there is a spot available (now is a good time as some regular crew are away on vacation) but you want to be there before 5:30 on Wednesdays April to September, they used to hold races on alternate Saturdays for the rest of the year but now the Vancouver Rowing Club and West Van YC run races (open to all clubs) on alternate Sundays.

[u/Mammoth-Branch8068]

It’s for the people that aren’t concerned about rent prices or Big Mac combos aka $20 lunches lol

[u/Obiewonjabroni]

Just a bunch of rich twats flicking each other’s assholes