Yacht Club Membership: worth it?

[SVNagambie]

I know several people who are avid seasonal sailors in the PNW, who maintain yacht club memberships almost exclusively for the reciprocal rights at marinas. The clubs they belong to mainly have reciprocal rights with other West Coast clubs, so not much use to us in our planned 3-year circumnavigation as we will be in the med, Caribbean, etc. I just about choked when I saw the marina prices in these places. Looks like we’ll be almost exclusively anchoring.....

Do any other circumnavigating folks maintain a yacht club membership purely for reciprocal marina privileges? Is this even possible on a global or regional (non-US) basis? Is it worthwhile?

[psk125]

There are different types of "yacht clubs". For a RTW trip, joining the CCA or Storm Trysail Club might be useful. Depending upon which ports you visit, being a member of the St. Francis (SFO) YC or New York YC could also be helpful. Or perhaps not. It can be handy to have a "Letter of Introduction" from a club you belong to that you can present at other clubs (as opposed to corporate marinas) even if reciprocal privileges have not been arranged. It might enable you use of the club's facilities, rather than simply being turned away. Reciprocal privileges essentially enable people to run up a tab that eventually gets billed back to them at their home club. Not something overly necessary now that sailors can use credit cards.