Raid Costs

Started by Andy Dingle, 15 Jun 2013, 00:17

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Andy Dingle


To continue the off-piste fender theme Michael, with apologies to any one who bothers about these things!
When I first saw the details of the English Raid I totalled the costs of my boat and a couple of crew plus the Broads licence which came to about £700! Plus the costs of fuel to get there, accommodation and beer... Soon adds up, over a grand for a weeks sailing.  I appreciate those costs include meals.
I thought if I were a family man who wanted to take his wife and a couple of youngsters for a week sailing then it would sting the wallet a bit.. or am I being naive? (and tight!).
I think it was Tony who very eloquently raised these points before concerning the costs of raids and sailing events in particular. In comparison I went to Morbihan week this year in France, which was very well organised with excellent sailing including all launching and mooring fees etc - totally free! Admittedly we had to pay for food, but that was quite modest - and some wine and oysters were free. (Of course fuel, ferry and accommodation had to be paid for in addition).

There. I've had my grump! Having said that I appreciate a lot of work goes into organising these events for which I am very grateful and would most certainly like to attend future raids.

Anyway, will give feed back on the fenders in due course.


Regards

Andy



Jonathan Stuart

I have moved this post to it's own topic because, as Andy said, it was "off piste" but also might warrant further discussion.

Having been to both Morbihan and Caledonia this year, each for the first time, I think Caledonia does justify its cost and is good value for money - I will explain why below.

However, I think Andy is right that typical raid pricing models don't seem to scale, i.e. the costs for families, etc, tend to be linear according to the number in the group and that presumably doesn't reflect the organiser's incremental costs or make a sensible proposition for many families.

Back to the costs of current raids, Sail Caledonia is interesting because its entrants become members of the organising club and thus see the annual accounts. That makes the finances transparent and it was clear that no-one is profiteering or incurring needless costs.

But my main point here is that I think Morbihan and, say, Sail Caledonia or the English raid, are very different events for two reasons. First, Morbihan is organised by the local communities and I assume there is a level of subsidy, both financial and from greater donations of time and resources, than is available to other raids. Second, these are different events and I wouldn't be surprised if the cost per head of Caledonia, etc, is higher than Morbihan. Morbihan provides an overall "framework" for sailing in company but entrants are otherwise free to do their own things without supervision. Caledonia is a far more closely organised and marshalled event. That means Caledonia has (as far as I could see) a far, far higher ratio of safety boats to entrants as well as the use of a "mother ship" and provision of evening meals, etc, all of which impact costs.

Essentially you pay for the style of event you want but to compare the two is not comparing like-for-like. However, I suspect there is an interest in doing raid-style events, other than Caledonia and the English raid,  that are stripped down to the core essentials - i.e. cruising in company with everyone responsible for themselves, as happens on other events (Rutland, Bala, etc), but done as a raid format rather than in a single location. If anyone is interested in doing something like this on the south coast then get in touch and perhaps we could arrange something.
Jonathan

Ex - BayCruiser 26 #11 "Bagpuss"
Ex - BayRaider Expedition #3 "Mallory"

Graham W

In the case of the French events, it is definitely a case of liberté, égalité, subsidy.  Some raid organisers, such as Albacore-Dacmar, rely partly on financial support from outside organisations and when that dries up, they move on to the next location. 2012's Raid Ireland was supported by Waterways Ireland, Failte Ireland (National Tourism Authority) and Carrickcraft Cruisers Hire Company.  As far as I can tell, this was a one-off event.

As the voluntary treasurer for the club that runs Sail Caledonia, I can confirm what Jonathan says - none of us are in it to make money and with our high safety standards, it costs what it costs.  Luckily, we have enough entrants to do slightly better than break even, which means that we can keep organising the event and possibly even waive the entry and camping fees for a crew from a deserving cause next year.   
Gunter-rigged GRP BR20 No.59 'Turaco III'