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June 11 Boating Experiences Workshop

Dale Moses | Published on 4/26/2022

Our club has created a new program of workshops for both new and experienced boaters. PTYC (and most yacht clubs) get many new members whose primary aim in joining a yacht club is to learn more about boating. Yes, they are interested in the social stuff and cruising, but their real intent is to use the club’s members and events to learn how to boat safely and without problems in operating their boats as well as maintaining them. We have heard this over and over again from people new to boating as well as people who know boating but perhaps don’t know much about our boating waters/customs/traditions/hazards/etc.

USCG auxiliary and Power Squadrons offer courses but they are strangers teaching strangers usually with a canned lesson offering. PTYC offers our safety day in the spring with one or two topics and that is fine for everyone including oldsters who can use the reminders but these are usually safety-related not routine boating matters. A few general meeting’s topics also can do some newbie education. And lastly there are the stray one-one-one discussions at club meetings/ events that pass along a few tidbits. There isn’t anything beyond these in terms of practical education for the myriad of details in boating. A good yacht club would offer more for new members.

We are starting a series of workshops aimed at newbies, perhaps quarterly. Each session would have a theme but would also allow a lot of time for roundtable discussions on any boating topic. Below is a list of possible topics that would have a PTYC member presenting but be wide open for Q&A as the session goes along. We hope each session would have a handful of oldsters to react to the flow and help with questions. The program design would be wide open to new topics for future sessions as the demand evolved. These sessions would take cooperation from some members (perhaps as many as a dozen) and would be a great fraternizing opportunity for existing members sharing with newbies as well as satisfying newbie interests.

The first session is scheduled in the Clubhouse on Saturday, June 11, 2022 at 10-12 and is titled “So You Have A Boat: Now What?”

If you would like to participate either as a learner or as an experienced old hand, please take a minute to fill out this online survey:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BoatingExperiences