Weekend membership is our most popular plan. It gives you the ability to book your boat for a long weekend afloat, perfect for families or friends looking at getting out on the water.
All members can reserve a guaranteed 2 weekend days and 1 midweek day every 2 months. These days can be booked up to 1 year in advance and are booked either as individual days, or together, whichever you’d like. If booked as one consecutive booking, that gives you a long weekend (Fri/Sat/Sun or Sat/Sun/Mon).
In addition, you receive a further 2 weekend days and 1 midweek day as last minute. These are days you can book up to 5 days in advance and are not guaranteed; they are on a first-come basis.
Weekend membership gives you 18 guaranteed sailing days plus a further 18 last minute days totalling up to 36 days per year.
Membership starts at £620/month and prices can be found on each boats page.
Membership is a 12-month commitment and you must choose a specific boat to join. You are able to switch boats once a year if you find that you need a different type of boat.
To join, complete our joining form and pay the £495 joining fee. You’ll then be able to start booking your first sailing adventure.
All members require Day Skipper and VHF certificate.
If however you don’t hold these then we can provide these as part of the joining process with our fully integrated RYA sailing school FlexiCrew. You can even train on your own FlexiSail sailing yacht!
After the joining fee, we do not have any extra charges as part of membership.
Your FlexiSail boat is fully insured, berthed, maintained and managed by us. Even the cooking gas and fuel is included. You are of course responsible for your own overnight berthing costs when away from your home marina. FlexiSail membership is true fixed cost sailing.
Initially you are liable for the first £2,000 for any incident. Should you not make any claims, this reduces to £1,500 after 1 year and then £1,000 for any subsequent years.
We restrict members in any boat to an equivalent of 7 Anytime members. This equates to 60% of each 2-month rotation leaving the remainder for inverse weather, maintenance days, social events and last minute availability.
The advantage of FlexiSail membership is that it is clear cut and straightforward. You are simply paying for access to the asset. So whilst you are gaining the ‘ownership ‘ experience, you are not buying it.
Membership is a great way to see if sailing is for you (dipping your toes in the water) at a known fixed cost. By comparison, owning a boat involves a significant financial commitment, which by its nature is long term, and the costs if you change your mind are huge!
FlexiSail membership provides the flexibility to move your membership to different boats, all of which are new or nearly new. It is the perfect solution for busy and time poor people who want to use their spare time sailing and not committing to looking after another expensive and depreciating asset!
Membership is a no risk straightforward fixed cost 12-month commitment.
Yes, we allow you to share your membership with one other person. In other words we allow two named skippers under one membership. This is normally a spouse or partner, but could be a friend, son or daughter, or business colleague.
There is no additional charge for sharing your membership, but there are some usage conditions where there are two independent skippers named. Shared FlexiSail membership is a great way to reduce cost and increase value.
FlexiSail provide breakdown cover through SeaStart – the AA on the water. SeaStart will sort you out, usually within the hour, and will tow you back if necessary. They cover a wide area of the South Coast and have arrangements with local engineers in many other locations.
However, FlexiSail boats are generally new or nearly new, with an average age of approximately 3 years old. Yacht marine engines are very reliable and are serviced periodically by the main dealer and service agent. Therefore, it is most unlikely that you will ever have a major engine failure. However, it is always possible to pick up weed and cause the engine to overheat or to catch a rope around the prop.
SeaStart are available to chat through any potential issues before a breakdown, and of course we are on shore to deal with anything once you return.
Absolutely you can.
As a FlexiSail member yourself you have all the other FlexiSail members’ contact details on your own boat as well as the opportunity to meet other members at our regularly arranged social and training events from across our locations of Hamble, Lymington and Poole.
Absolutely! Sailing with guests is much of the pleasure, be it family, friends, colleagues or other members.
Provided that you as ‘the named skipper member’ are on board, who you invite is entirely up to you. You can also still sail if you have not yet obtained your qualifications provided that you have a suitably qualified skipper who is in charge. In this situation, we need to have approved the skipper’s details and qualifications for insurance purposes prior to sailing.
Our membership agreement makes provision for any member who abuses their FlexiSail membership to be fined or removed from the programme. Since starting FlexiSail, we have only had to ‘remove’ two members who felt no duty of care or responsibility towards the other members on their boat and treated our yacht as charter boat. One had a series of accidents, which directly impacted on other members.
You get to personally know the members that are following you on board. Consequently, there is a natural concern and desire to return the boat on time and in the excellent condition that you received your boat. Also, because you join FlexiSail to have the ‘ownership’ experience, you become familiar with your boat, treat it as your own and as a result we have many fewer accidents.
No, unfortunately not. One of the reasons why we can keep and maintain our yachts to such a high standard is that they are for cruising only. We know from experience that boats which are raced are ‘pushed’ hard and to the limit, which results in equipment breaking and significantly greater wear and tear.
The only exception is the annual Round the Island Race when we only enter one of our larger yachts with an instructor aboard.
