Booking System

Depending on the membership type (Anytime, Weekender, or Midweeker) you receive a guaranteed allocation of time that you can book on your boat. We can guarantee it because we use 2 monthly booking rotations that are 9 weeks long through the main sailing season. However, our total members’ advanced bookings can only add up to a max of 7 weeks of any 9 week period. This leaves some 14 days free in every booking rotation.

Therefore, even at the height of the season your guaranteed allocation of weekdays and weekend days are always available giving you the flexibility to choose from many unbooked additional days, which increases your booking flexibility. Compare this to the competitive nature of the first come basis where nothing is guaranteed. For example, if a 100 members have access to your boat you only have a 1 in 100 chance of getting the boat that you want, on the date that you want, or a 1 in 99 chance for your second choice!

With FlexiSail you are never competing with more than 6 other memberships (‘Anytime Voyagers’ equivalent) that might want the exact same date, and with no one to book your guaranteed allocation within the booking rotation.

To encourage you to plan ahead you have the ability to book up to 12 months in advance. For example, as an Anytime Voyager member you can hold 21 days of advanced bookings. You are not required to have prepaid to advance book, and you can cancel or move your advance bookings at any time up to 48 hours before your booking(s) without loss. As soon as you have used some of your allocated bookings you can book more, so that you can constantly maintain up to 21 days of planned sailing in your diary during the 12 months ahead.

We know that by planning ahead you will sail more and get better value from your membership. It is a myth to believe that by having your own boat you will sail more – too many other things will fill your diary! Full marinas 350 days a year testify to this! Our members sail more than most private owners simply because they plan ahead.

FlexiBook allows you to make, cancel, swap or exchange time with other members at any time, up to 12 months ahead. If your plans change or the weather is unsuitable, you simply change your dates. The only caveat is that this flexibility is constrained to within each 2 month (9 week) booking rotation, and cancellations should be more than 48 hours before the start of your booking.

In contrast, standard ‘charter’ practice requires payment or prepayment to book, and cancellations are not refundable! This makes advance planning a complete lottery with unpredictable weather and changes to personal commitments. The ‘charter’ system is rigged against you because if you do plan well ahead and have to cancel you will lose your time and your money. If you don’t plan ahead the consequence will be less sailing as other commitments will have filled your diary.

You are only sharing your boat with a small number of other members, some of whom will become personal friends. FlexiBook allows you to swap time with another member. Sometimes members are away or not able to sail for part of the year. When this happens they can give you their guaranteed allocation and in return you can give them your guaranteed allocation at another time within the next 12 months. This is a great way to sail for more extended periods or simply get greater value from your membership.

This allows you to use FlexiBook to exchange blocks of time with another member on your boat. These bookings have to be approved through our management system to ensure that you have the appropriate skills and knowledge.

Every membership type has a free usage allocation over and above their guaranteed time allocation. Whilst not guaranteed, this works because we only sell up to a max of 7 weeks in every 9 week booking rotation. A ‘charter’ modelled company would sell this time to someone else. We don’t, we keep this available time for your free use and it is part of your exclusive use of your boat. We call it last minute access (LM) and it can be booked within 3 days (72 hours) of the start of an available time. On a typical boat that has one vacant membership, every booking rotation will then have 7 days from the unsold membership, plus your 7 days that you still have to book, as well as 14 days that cannot be booked by any member, plus any time not utilised by the other members on your boat. This will give you a choice of around 28+ days each rotation to find time that suits you! The un-bookable 14 days in each rotation is there for your last minute (within 3 days) free use, social events, and essential boat maintenance.

Not only can you book a single day, several days or a whole week (Anytime membership) up to 12 months ahead at any time, you also have the flexibility to start your booking from 18.00, 08.00 or 10.00 hrs. From a practical point of view this means that you can pick your boat up at 18.00 hrs the evening before. It also allows you to make an early 08.00 hrs start to your day sailing, or if overnighting you can leave at a civilised time of 10.00 hrs rather than an early 08.00 hrs! FlexiBook also splits the ’24hr day’ into a day sail and a night sail. Therefore, you could pop down for a few hours in the evening and still have a full day sail available within a single day (24 hrs) of allocation.

It is important to appreciate that social events are all booked in management time and so when you book onto an event, such as the 4-day Channel crossing, none of the boat time comes out of your personal boat use allocation. It is additional free sailing, just as if you were sailing with another member at their invitation.

We only cover the costs of the event. For example, the 4-day cross Channel event is under £200 per person, which includes berthing fees, fuel, boat cleaning, one or two instructors over 6-10 boats, and a £40 per person four course dinner with good quality wine. By comparison the commercial charge would be around £450-550 per person!