Cruising Club

ChesapeakeChiller

Are there any good cruising clubs in the middle Chesapeake bay area? I moved into a larger boat late last season and planed to make a lot of trips this year to Saint Michael's, Solomon's, Wye Island, Great Oak Landing Jellyfish Joel's) Etc.

Unfortunately my 2 best friends boats are not going to be in great shape this year so they wont be making many trips with us. I feel going in small groups is both safer and more fun so I am looking for a cruising club. Most of what I am finding is sailing clubs or cruising clubs that seem to be more exclusive to marina/slip holders.

So any good clubs or start a South and West River Club?

Handymans342

Get with Dream and go to the rendezvous

ChesapeakeChiller

Hi Handy, I plan to go to the rendezvous and meet some of the forum members. I was just looking beyond the one event. I do think getting out there and meeting everyone will probably open up some other trip opportunities for us assuming we all get along well. 

Handymans342

Have fun. Dream will be the hardest to get along with and his kids are a PITA. LOL

Handymans342

Solomon's is a blast. Nice museums and food. Tangier island is cool. Got to go to Crisfield and eat crabs. Spent the weekend in Deale island broke down Lol. Nothing there but ugly oystermans wives. Town of Oxford where I bought my Rinker is very historic. Lots to do

ChesapeakeChiller

Thanks for the insight, looking forward to a great year moving forward. Just waiting for new starboard engine and should be in water again in 2 weeks

Handymans342

My kids live in Edgewater

ChesapeakeChiller

Nice, we like it here (8 1/2 years now). We are in Mayo basically Mayo is just a zip code within the Edgewater zip code located on the peninsula portion of Edgewater. We would love to move south to Carolinas or Florida but decided with our parents aging we should stay close by to be as close as possible.

Your kids get out on the water much?

Handymans342

Yes all the time. Caught a 40 lb 40 inch Rockfish saturday

Handymans342

And my favorite restaurant, Old Stein. I know the owner. Did a lot of work there. If you ever need glass, Mayo glass in that trailer by the PO. 

ChesapeakeChiller

That's a good rock, I saw a lot of people out fishing but not many bringing anything back. I live behind the Old Stein great place they recently built a new Biergarten.

Handymans342

I helped build part of that and fixed the fence. 

06Rinker270

@ChesapeakeChiller I have the same interest as you and started a Meetup group for this reason.  I called it the Boaters Club of DMV.  I am getting a lot of non boat owners so I am canceling this club and making a new one called "Boat Owners Club of the DMV"  Might be a good way to get some trips going of random people and boats.  Any interest? 

My marina did a rockfish tournament this last weekend on the potomac and no one caught squat except a few boats.  

Handymans342

What's DMV.????  Dept of Motor Vehicles? LOL

06Rinker270

Come on didnt you live out here?  DC, MD, VA

Handymans342

Ahhhhhhh. Cool

ChesapeakeChiller

@06Rinker270 yes we would be interested let me know the info when you get it started up.

LaRea

I generally won't raft up with somebody I don't know, unless they are a close friend of someone in my circle of trust.  Call me conservative, but I've seen too much crazy over the years.  Of course, meeting people at a marina is a little different because you're not depending on them for your safety. 

Handymans342

I agree but i dont think there is one bad soul on here......well Ray......oh nevermind. LOL

ChesapeakeChiller

LaRea I agree mostly, I was thinking of a more traditional local club where everyone knows each other thru meetings and the neighborhood etc.

LaRea

So you mean a virtual yacht club, like Westmoreland Yachting Association (www.wya-va.com).

ChesapeakeChiller

I am not sure what I mean really as I have never been in one. I assumed something of a local club with meetings and planed cruises. Similar to a local car club might have.

LaRea

The Chesapeake Bay Yacht Clubs Association (CBYCA) keeps a comprehensive list of local clubs:

http://www.cbyca.org/clubs.htm#Member Clubs 

06Rinker270

That is what I was going for @ChesapeakeChiller.  Maybe saying "random" wasnt the correct word usage.  I wanted to start this club to visit other marina's and meet new boating friends locally.  I dont want to go raft up with rando's.  Maybe do a club meeting first to meet eachother then go from there.

Dream_Inn

Man, I boat all weekend, and come back to this site and Handy is trashing me again!  I guess I'll just boat alone with no friends!

really you guys, the best advice is just getting out there, going to some marinas, BSing with people and slowly you'll get a group that you'll start boating with.  Also in your own marina.  We find that we like to take the boat out a lot more than most, so we just go and not like to be tied down to waiting on others (yeah, can sound mean I guess, but don't mean it that way).  Sure when we are with others, if there are issues I hop in to help.  But I find if I stick around the marina waiting for others to go somewhere, I'm working on someone's boat every weekend.

I will say I have at times met people that ended up rafted on my anchor that someone already on my anchor new and invited.  Most have always been pretty nice.  Right now I have to say there is a good core group on my pier that we all get out quite a bit together.  But I'll also tell others hey, we're doing this trip, going here, here and there across 10 days if you want to meet up.  (like on here, June 23rd this year we'll be heading north past the Potomac if any of you Potomacers want to meet up).  We'll also be in Solomon's the 24/25 of June.  That's how I ran into that crazy Handy guy!!  (at least my kids thought he was crazy!)

Michael T

.....kids are intuitive....I couldn't resist! LOL

Handymans342

I wish I could have met up with Dream more times and a lot of other boaters too. 

Michael T

Steve, shouldn't they all be heading to your new place?

Handymans342

Love that MT

holscher2438

The majority of any activity in my marina is sail related...would love to find a group of motor peeps to raft up with on the Potomac.  where is that boat owners of dmv? is it active?

06Rinker270

Not yet but I am working on it.  It will be on MeetUp.  @holscher2438 PM me lets meet up this summer.  I say we do a marina meet up first on the potomac.