Datchet Water Sailing Club

Queen Mother Reservoir Horton Road, Horton Berkshire SL3 9NT

Telephone +44 (O) 1753 683872

Email : manager@dwsc.co.uk

Crewing at Datchet Water Sailing Club

Volunteering to crew is an ideal way to get involved with racing at Datchet Water Sailing club. Sailing in a variety of boats and with a number of different helms is a quick way to learn to sail fast and get to know all about racing procedures, etc.  It is also far cheaper than owning your own boat and can be more sociable.

Getting in Touch

The only drawback is finding a crewing job in the first place.  This can take a little perseverance and we would strongly recommend accepting any crewing job to start with, even if it is not in your ideal boat or is only for the odd day, so that you can get to know people at the club.  This may then lead on to other opportunities.

To help boat owners find crews and crews find helms there is a thread running on the club Google Group below or join the facebook group.   To enable you to post on this group please e-mail crewhelm@dwsc.co.uk for an invitation to join the group.  If you are nervous about posting personal details on a public area of the web please e-mail crewhelm@dwsc.co.uk and we will post an anonymous announcement and forward on any responses.  We would recommend listing your previous experience and the types of boats you would like to crew (e.g. trapeze or non-trapeze, keelboats or cats).

Membership

To use the facilities at Datchet Water Sailing Club it is a requirement that you have some form of membership.  Any member is allowed to sign a guest into the club (using the visitors’ book in the office) up to three times with no charge, so we would recommend you use this option for the first few times you crew.  You may find that the boat owner has purchased a crew/helm pass as part of their membership, which allows them to invite anyone along to the club to sail with them at any time.  If this is the case we would recommend buying them plenty of drinks or asking them whether they would like a contribution towards this fee.

If this is not the case the club will expect you to become a member in your own right at an annual fee of £149.00.  Due to the uncertainties involved with crewing the club also offers the following  temporary membership options for people who only want to crew: -

Daily Sailing Fee                                                           £10

Monthly Membership                                                     £25

Three Month Membership                                               £50

Wednesday Evening Series Membership                         £60

These fees do not entitle you to rent the club boats.