Fraternity Dues

Progress Report

Persuade

Sailing programs are extremely competitive on Cape Cod during the summer. Each year, the OYC uses the sailing program budget as a means of investment to encourage local families to choose our yacht club over other competitors. The boats at our yacht club prove to be an issue due to their physical appearance and the children's inability to learn effectively while sailing them. This feasibility study examines three different options for investing in new sailboats for the OYC: replacing the Optis, the Capris, or half of each fleet. The research was conducted by looking at sailing blogs from successful yacht clubs and also by looking back on my personal experiences with learning to sail at the OYC. To determine which option was best, the cost and effectiveness of each boat was taken into account. Staying within the budget was important. The main goal of the sailing program is to teach kids how to sail in a way that is fun and effective. Because of this, buying a new fleet of Optis was the best solution for our yacht club. Not only was this the cheapest of the three options, but the kids would be able to learn to sail more efficiently and more activities could be done with the Optis verses the Capris.

Inform

The Orleans Yacht Club is a prestigious organization located on the middle of Cape Cod. The club has been offering sailing lessons since 1968 for children between the ages of 8-17. Families who summer on Cape Cod are always looking for unique activities their children will enjoy and get them out of the house for the day. Because of this, sailing is a very popular pass time for kids on the Cape and everyone really enjoys it. Each town on Cape Cod has a yacht club; making sailing extremely competitive once kids reach racing team level. This makes sailing not only enjoyable for younger kids, but also those who keep with the activity until they reach the age of 18.

The sailing program has changed drastically within the past five years. Instead of only offering two sessions that split the summer up in half (4 weeks each), the yacht club is now allowing kids to sign up for two weeks at a time (4 sessions per summer). With this new accommodation, the number of kids who sail at the yacht club has nearly doubled, because not every family that comes to Cape Cod stays for the entire summer. This has forced instructors to pay closer attention to their classes and cram a four-week session into two weeks. Since the younger kids are not allowed to sail 420s, the Capris and Optis are getting more wear and tear than ever before. This does not allow the instructors to always follow the yacht club's main objectives with teaching the kids as much as possible.

The OYC is all about teaching children to sail as well as they possibly can while keeping lessons fun and entertaining. We make the lessons enjoyable ...