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Bay Sailors  A Tampa Bay Sailing Club for Singles Sign Up for a Sail! / Cruise Coordinator page Who can go sailing How the voucher system works How to sign up for a sail How the crew assignment system works Special requests Deadlines for signing up and for showing up Rules for crew and what to bring Dealing with any problems Boat locations, maps, specifications Dinner time. Crews from three boats get together at sunset   Print a Registration Form This will download a .pdf file to your computer and you may then print it out. If you do NOT have Adobe Reader installed, CLICK HERE   to get a free copy.

Who can go sailing:

• You must be a Member to participate in a club sponsored sailing event.
• You must also file, with the Cruise Coordinator, a sailing registration form and the appropriate number of vouchers.
• Possession of vouchers alone does not entitle you to go sailing. You must also be a current member.

How the voucher system works:
Members receive vouchers with an annual membership. If you use up all your vouchers you may buy more ($10 apiece) from the Treasurer.

Our "bank" system: You may keep your vouchers yourself, mailing them in with registration forms or bringing them with you to the General Meeting and registering there. You may find it more convenient to give the vouchers to the Cruise Coordinator, who staples them into a binder with a page just for you. Then all you need to do to go sailing is to telephone or e-mail the Cruise Coordinator, who will fill in a sailing registration form for you and attach your voucher(s). The Cruise Coordinator takes no responsibility for your vouchers and it is your choice to use the bank or not.

How to sign up for a sail:
You may register for a sail in the current or the next month. There are three ways to register for a sail:

• Mail a sailing registration form (there are two blank ones in each newsletter or you may print some from this web site), along with the necessary vouchers, to the Cruise Coordinator.
• Come to the General Meeting and hand in a sailing registration form and your vouchers to the Cruise Coordinator.
• E-mail or telephone to the Cruise Coordinator, who has your vouchers on file. The Cruise Coordinator far prefers e-mail to phone calls.

To sail, you must use vouchers. Common sails are:

• Day sails: One day on the water and one voucher.
• Overnights at anchor ("Anchor out") are usually two vouchers and last two days and one night.
• Overmights at a marina or yacht club ("Dock & Dine") are usually three vouchers and last two days and one night. The extra voucher helps pay for the boat slip rental.

Special sails may have other durations, costs, or deadlines.

How the crew assignment system works:
Experience: The Cruise Coordinator tries to put at least one experienced crew aboard each boat to assist the skipper. Other crew are then assigned until the boat is full.

First-Come-First-Sail: After experienced crew are assigned, the crew is filled in on the basis who who signed up first, etc.

Bounces: For a variety of reasons, it may not be possible for everyone to go sailing on a specific day. Those who are not assigned to a boat get their vouchers refunded. We try to minimize this but it does sometimes happen. This is a perfect time to ask the Cruise Coordinator to assign you to another sail later this month or next month — which might put you at the front of the line. You may register for a sail in the current or the next month.

Special requests:
You may make special requests and there is a space on the sailing registration form to write in your special request. Perhaps you wish to carpool with another member and so go sailing on the same boat. Perhaps you and another member always prefer to sail together. You may not wish to drive to a far-distant boat and so request not to be assigned to that boat.

You may not wish, for whatever reason, to sail with a certain boat or skipper. Be forewarned that this sort of request is considered to be a permanent one. Use it wisely.

The Cruise Coordinator will try to honor such requests. But there are no guarantees and the needs of the skippers and club come first.

Deadlines for signing up and for showing up:
All sails have registration deadlines. Sails scheduled in the newsletter usually have a deadline of the Wednesday night before the weekend sail. But these may vary in special circumstances. The deadline is the last day you can sign up and also the last day you can cancel and get a voucher refund.

One common exception are occasional "special sails" that are not listed in the newsletter and which are available only at the General Meeting (or listed here on this web site, see the Calendar Page for any upcoming Special Sails). No matter when those take place, the deadline is the night of the first-Wednesday General Meeting. This is because there is no flexibility afforded the Cruise Coordinator when it comes to replacing crew. So when you sign up, you're committed.

The skipper will call you a day or two before the sail with information as to when to show up and where to show up. Our FLEET web page has general and specific maps for all our boat locations. If you have not been to a boat before, schedule in enough time to get lost and still be there on time.

Plan to be at the dock a half-hour before scheduled departure. Skippers do not wait for late crew. They are not only instructed to depart on time, but they may need to consider the tide and/or bridge opening schedules. Being late is a Very Bad Idea. Not only do you miss the sail (and get charged for it anyway) but the Cruise Coordinator and skipper will both take this into consideration in the future.

Rules for crew and what to bring:
Visit our INFORMATION web page for useful tips.

Dealing with any problems:
If you cannot make the sail, call the Cruising Coordinator AND the boat skipper immediately! Someone else may be able to fill your space and, equally importantly, the skipper is counting upon you to help crew his/her boat. But also note that there are no refunds of vouchers for cancellations made after the deadline.

If the skipper cancels the trip and it is too late to reassign you to another boat, you get your vouchers back.

Boat locations, maps, specifications:
Visit our FLEET page for boat locations and specifications.