^%$^% Yacht Club politics

[Island Time O25]

Unless there is absolutely no other alternative I would run from this club given the idiotic behavior and lack of common sense and decency of their management. If I were to drop $3,000 on "initiation" fees I'd be damn sure they dance to my tune and not the other way around.The paying customer IS ALWAYS right unless this is some 3rd world communistic hellhole where this basic capitalist concept is not honored. Or at least one would hope it is not such a place.

Oh and if "associate" fees are not to be applied to the full membership fees I'd take them to small claims and get all the money back and be done with them. It does sound like a total rip off, at least under our state's laws. The dead partner's estate may have a claim to get the remainder of his membership fees back. At least it should do its best to try to get it back.

[mr-canada]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

Let's see... in many urban areas you can likely hire a couple of crack heads to knee-cap all those bastards who did you wrong, probably for less than a couple of weeks berthing fees.

F-ing hilarious! No I dont think I need to knee cap anyone, lol. But they have caused me a serious PIA.

[mr-canada]

Originally Posted by Island Time O25

Unless there is absolutely no other alternative I would run from this club given the idiotic behavior and lack of common sense and decency of their management. If I were to drop $3,000 on "initiation" fees I'd be damn sure they dance to my tune and not the other way around.The paying customer IS ALWAYS right unless this is some 3rd world communistic hellhole where this basic capitalist concept is not honored. Or at least one would hope it is not such a place.

Oh and if "associate" fees are not to be applied to the full membership fees I'd take them to small claims and get all the money back and be done with them. It does sound like a total rip off, at least under our state's laws. The dead partner's estate may have a claim to get the remainder of his membership fees back. At least it should do its best to try to get it back.

My partner had paid a $3,000 initiation fee, non-refundable, plus a moorage surcharge of $1,050, also non-refundable. I paid an Associate Members initiation fee of $1,500, all the moorage was paid in full, all the dues were paid in full for both me and my partner.

Then he dies unexpectedly, bless his soul - he was a member of that club for close to 20 years, I was an Associate for 5.

So in order to get a slip, they wanted me to top up my initiation fee from $1,500 to $3,000, which is still non-refundable - this is something I expected - but then pay another moorage surcharge of $1,050, also non-refundable, plus continue paying dues, putting in my required volunteer hours all while I wait on their list and pay moorage someplace else.

Top it off that they tried to sell my boat for me when it was never indicated to anyone that it was for sale to a "new member" as a "fixerupper". I highly doubt that they would be told to sit on the wait list and move the boat. Obviously in not owning a boat they hadn't paid the non-refundable moorage surcharge, and I can't imagine someone ponying up over $4,000 just to get a key and participate in some social activities unless they have more money than brains, and if they did have more money than brains, they wouldn't be looking for a fixerupper.

By my math, the club would be coming out ahead by just taking my $1,500 to top up my initation fee and letting me take over the slip; seeing as they already had my partner's initiation fee and his moorage surcharge and I was listed as a co-owner of the boat for 5 years; it's not like I was just parachuting in at the last minute.

Toss in the shannigans with the hand delivered cheques, names, the Commodore beaking at me because I lost my dinghy in a windstorm a week before Christmas when it was blowing gales and in sub zero weather, and getting attitude about every payment because they would refuse to just tell me that the moorage needed to be paid; they had my phone, email, mailing address, and Facebook contact information and I specifically instructed them that if there was a problem to contact me, making my deceased partner's wife angry and then freaking out demanding a new POI within 24 hours or they would either impound the boat or move it, the bailiff BS before I even was supposed to move...

Yeah I'm pretty happy to be the F out of that yacht club. I dont understand the haughty taughty attitude, seeing as the channel is so dry at zero tide it's only 6 feet, the wind is insanity and you can't get into the slip at low tide or you'll risk running aground, the clubhouse is about 600 square feet, they have a legal challenge from the landowner who wants to build a condo development in the access area and wants to charge the club $10,000 a month rent or force them to move the clubhouse, the water lease is at risk because the developer wants to build a marina to go with his condo development... it goes on and on. And the wait list? 20 people left in the past off season, there are empty slips everywhere.

Now I'm on the hook paying absolutely nothing in a much calmer area waiting for a slip at a professional marina with zero worry about tides and vortex winds (when I say strong winds... I have been caught in 30-40 gust 60... I mean totally strong winds).

I do wish I could get my initiation fee back, but it is non-refundable right in the bylaws, I doubt I could get it.

I did bring up customer service, selective bylaw enforcement, "executive decisions" and lack of consultation upon my exit. I mean, when it says "no liveaboards" and there are like 7 liveaboards and the Commodore is a liveaboard and I'm getting slammed to the letter of the law something is just not right.

[mr-canada]

Originally Posted by Larry Florida

The partnership does not seem to be working out.

Um, my partner died in surgery of a stroke. This is not his fault, unless you consider dying something he could have avoided.

[Island Time O25]

I don't know where you are but here in MA some (many?) "non refundability" clauses are thrown out by the court as "against public policy" or under "unjust enrichment doctrine". Perhaps not most or very many but enough to give it a try, especially, in small claims court given the relatively small amount (too small to have an attorney argue it in the regular court).

In your situation, if you described it correctly, they are double billing for the same service/mooring. I'd take them to small claims for whatever you paid over what your late partner already paid to them. Doesn't hurt to try and all you'd lose is your filing small claims court fees, probably under a $100 anyway.

[mr-canada]

Originally Posted by Island Time O25

I don't know where you are but here in MA some (many?) "non refundability" clauses are thrown out by the court as "against public policy" or under "unjust enrichment doctrine". Perhaps not most or very many but enough to give it a try, especially, in small claims court given the relatively small amount (too small to have an attorney argue it in the regular court).

In your situation, if you described it correctly, they are double billing for the same service/mooring. I'd take them to small claims for whatever you paid over what your late partner already paid to them. Doesn't hurt to try and all you'd lose is your filing small claims court fees, probably under a $100 anyway.

You know, that's actually not a bad idea.

While they specifically say that "memberships" are not transferrable, the moorage surcharge would be definitely double charged.

However, seeing as I didn't pay the second "non-refundable" moorage surcharge I couldn't claim that back, but it definitely would be double billing. Membership initiation fees are one thing, but the slip and the moorage surcharge should be tied together with the boat.

Not sure what angle I'd have to play, but that sort of angle might get my initiation fee back given that I left due to being forced to be double billed or leave.

[Island Time O25]

Originally Posted by mr-canada

You know, that's actually not a bad idea.

While they specifically say that "memberships" are not transferrable, the moorage surcharge would be definitely double charged.

However, seeing as I didn't pay the second "non-refundable" moorage surcharge I couldn't claim that back, but it definitely would be double billing. Membership initiation fees are one thing, but the slip and the moorage surcharge should be tied together with the boat.

Not sure what angle I'd have to play, but that sort of angle might get my initiation fee back given that I left due to being forced to be double billed or leave.

The way their scheme (scam?) is set up definitely makes your first initiation fee worthless. Especially if/when it is not applied toward the full membership fee. Sometimes just threatening legal action will make them listen and perhaps meet you half way and return a good portion of those fees.

[mr-canada]

Originally Posted by Island Time O25

The way their scheme (scam?) is set up definitely makes your first initiation fee worthless. Especially if/when it is not applied toward the full membership fee. Sometimes just threatening legal action will make them listen and perhaps meet you half way and return a good portion of those fees.

Well to their credit they were offering that I could "top up" my original Associate initiation fee to full member to the tune of about $1,500. The sticker shock was dropping another thousand for the non-refundable "moorage surcharge" that was already paid for by my former partner; and summarily having to pay this surcharge to get on a wait list.

I could kind of seen if they said, "Top up your initiation fee to full member, and sit on the wait list because as an associate you have no seniority" and making me pay the "surcharge" later (even though this would be double billing). But making me pay the top up, a second surcharge just to sit on a list and leave anyway is something I would call bullsh*t.

Given the circumstances, they should have just made me pay the top up and let me take over the slip, since the full member died. If they had clemency they might have let me pay it in installments to be nice.

Instead they dropped the hammer on everything and anything. The boat was still technically insured, but because they POed my partner's wife with it on her house insurance, I was left scrambling to get new insurance in 24 hours, then the hammer with all these charges, then another hammer with having to move anyway even if I paid it all and pay to moor somewhere else.

I swear, they just had my boat and my slip earmarked for someone else they wanted in the club. That is the only narrative that makes any sense, given that the moorage, dues, volunteer hours, everything was paid up in full and they had been haranguing me for years.

I have no interest in selling my boat, but everything has a price. When I told them I wouldn't even consider selling for less than 7 grand, I didn't hear a peep and they started talking bailiffs to seize the boat weeks before my scheduled move out date.

*Also worthy of note: A member of the bridge, when overhearing me say to another member that I will miss this Club, but they're giving me an offer I can't not refuse, profusely apologized and said she was so sorry that this was happening to me. My reading between the lines, the bridge is stacked with a bunch of people looking to move in their friends.

[Svanen]

Originally Posted by mr-canada

While they specifically say that "memberships" are not transferrable, the moorage surcharge would be definitely double charged.

However, seeing as I didn't pay the second "non-refundable" moorage surcharge I couldn't claim that back, but it definitely would be double billing. Membership initiation fees are one thing, but the slip and the moorage surcharge should be tied together with the boat..

Wow.

[Yellowtulip]

While I'm not defending that club (it sounds like an awful place) I suspect that the root of the problem is that there are full members who've paid heavily but don't have a mooring, on a waiting list. They would see you, an associate member, as a queue jumper (though you have done nothing wrong) and your former partner as a p***taker for not paying on time. I've been a member of a few clubs of various flavours and often come across this kind of thing. To counter that some of my best times have occurred in a club setting.