Unified Cruising Reciprocal Policy for Lake Ontario YCs
(as presented to the Council of Commodores in 2016)
Introduction
ABYC undertook an extensive study of all the reciprocal policies on Lake Ontario and one result of this policy is that 75% of YCs of Lake Ontario and Eastern St-Lawrence share the same policy. (See definition below)
There are a number of clubs that use a “True Reciprocal” policy that goes like this:
“A YC member visiting a YC that offers True Reciprocal will be granted the same reciprocal privilege that is granted to the YC member visiting that club”. For example if someone from Island Yacht Club visits a True Reciprocal YC then that visitor would be charged a fee for the first night the same that IYC does to inbound YC members. LOCCA believes that True Reciprocals are difficult to manage and requires bosons to research the visitors YC reciprocal policy for every visiting yacht.
Electronic Reciprocal Letters
LOCCA has redesigned their website to include a dedicated section where all YCs can have their reciprocal policies posted. This rids the YCs of the onerous obligation of sending out approximately 60 reciprocal letters per year and receiving and summarizing 60 inbound reciprocal letters.
We estimate that clubs save approximately $500 per year in materials and labour to complete this process. All LOCCA members can contact Ontario Sailing at execdir@ontariosailing.ca for their username and password allowing them to update their YC’s information on the website.
Purpose
The purpose of this YC Reciprocal Privilege is to ensure that this 100 year old tradition remains intact for now and the future of sailing on Lake Ontario. There is a tendency by certain YCs to want to restrict reciprocal privileges and our intention here is encourage YCs to liberalize their policy rather than consider restricting the policy. If this tendency does not reverse then YCs are doomed to disappear if there is no compelling reason for new sailors to join a YC.
Evergreen Reciprocal Policy
- First 2 nights free
- 3rd night at a fee per foot (i.e. $1.00 per linear foot) or a flat rate
- Up to 5 consecutive nights at any YC.
- No reciprocal privileges will be granted to marinas
- If a marina desires to offer reciprocal privileges then they can do so with other like-minded marinas.
- The number of times a YC member can visit a reciprocal YC will be at the discretion of that YC.
