Is 4 duties p.a. excessive? I'm all for doing my bit but 1 winter and 3 summer duties is eating into sailing time. Just wandered what other clubs have to contend with.

Does that include kiddie sailing or just "adult" - sounds about right to me.

I would sugggest that would be about right. We do 2 sunday duties each minimum and a Saturday or two. Those who have more time chip in a bit more to help those who work weekends (thanks!).

1 Saturday afternoon, 2 Sunday summer and one Sunday winter. No kiddy duties and this is for a single member.

Thanks for giving me some comparison.

3 per year at one club plus 2 per year and an extra or two at the other.

I used to do 8-10 safety boat duties per year plus dry side duties as well. I would suggest that anyone driving a safety boat for example should do this as a minimum otherwise you may not be getting enough driving experience.

Spare a thought for your committee members too. Many club officers, membership secretaries, treasurers etc. devote half their lives to duties; all free of charge and for your benefit as a member!

Two duties pa at one club, two at another of which I an Sailing Sec, help out occasionally with other odds and ends. Doesn't do to be too pedantic.

Number of duties is presumably in inverse proportion to sailing membership?  @ Midland we have four series per year, and seem to do one duty per series.  What's the problem?  Whether setting courses as Race Officer or bimbling in safety boat, there's splenty of observation and learning to be had at differnet ends of the fleet that we don't usually see.

At my club we only sail for 6 months due to the dinghy park becoming a cruiser yard for the rest of the year. There are 110 dinghies berthed for the season,of which only about 20 race on a regular basis.With the majority of the racers being single handers, this means a duty comes round at least every 3 weeks. The sailing committee are putting forward a proposal that it becomes a condition of dinghy storage ,that one duty has to be done to support the racing whether or not the owner wishes to take part. Have any other clubs tried this approach to try to reduce the burden ? --warnings, comments and advice much appreciated !

Thanks for your help. I am not used to being a club member having in the past focussed purely on opens and winter series. I'll get used to it and will do my bit...

It's a condition of our membership that everyone does at least one duty whether you race or not. Most of us do 2-4. We still have trouble filling our rota though.