In accordance with the Cambridge University Cruising Club (henceforth ‘CUCrC’) Constitution, the following Regulations complement the Constitution in respect of the Yachting Section. [Constitution E.4]
These Regulations shall be decided by, and may be changed from time to time by, the CUCrC General Committee or the CUY Committee. No regulation may be made which is inconsistent with the Constitution. [Constitution E.5]
The CUCrC General Committee shall decide any question of doubt with the interpretation or validity of any of these CUY Regulations. [Constitution E.6]
The CUCrC Yachting Section shall be called “Cambridge University Yachting†(henceforth 'CUY' or 'the Club').
The function of the Club shall be to offer a wide variety of safe and affordable yacht sailing and theory training to members of Cambridge University.
Membership must be held to participate in any CUY Event (any activity organised by the CUY Committee except social occasions).
Membership of the Club shall be extended to all members of Cambridge University and others who may apply to the Committee to become an Affiliate Member. The Committee shall have the right to offer honorary life membership in gratis. The Committee shall not refuse an application for membership on the grounds of race, sex, sexual orientation, religion or political views. It may, however, refuse membership or expel any member for actual or anticipated behaviour likely to bring the Club into disrepute or compromise the safety of an Event.
Membership shall be obtained by the payment of a Memberhip Fee and shall be valid for the Membership Period.
Each Member shall have one of three Classes of Membership: [Constitution A.3-5]
Junior Membership is available to undergraduate or graduate students of the University of Cambridge or of Associated Educational Institutions. “Associated Educational Institutions†[Constitution A.4] shall be taken to mean those directly linked with Cambridge University, for example the Judge Institute of Management, Wellcome MRC Research Laboratory, British Antarctic Survey.
Senior Membership is available to Cambridge University fellows and alumni (including those in education elsewhere) not meeting the criteria for Junior Membership
Affiliate Membership is available to those not meeting the criteria for Junior or Senior Membership [Constitution A.5]. Affiliate Members include but are not limited to Cambridge University postdoctorate personnel, Cambridge University Research staff, other Cambridge University staff and students at other universities.
Each Member shall have one of two Levels of Membership:
Full Membership shall give access to events of all CUCrC sections and shall be available to Junior and Senior Members. [Constitution A.6]
Yachting Only Membership shall give access to CUY events only and shall be available to Ordinary and Affiliate Members.
The Membership Fee for Full Membership and Yachting Only Membership shall be £35 and £10 respectively. The Yachting Only Membership Fee may be changed by the CUY Committee.
The Membership Period for Full Membership shall be reckoned from the first day of Michaelmas Full Term for one complete academic year until the start of the same Term the following year, irrespective of when the Membership is purchased. The Membership Period for Yachting Only Membership shall be from the first day of the Full Term in which the Membership is purchased until the start of the same Term the following year.
Yachting Only Day Membership may be issued for the period of a single CUY Event [Constitution A.8]. The Membership Fee and availability for such membership shall be decided as needed by the CUY Committee.
Membership shall be administered within CUY by the Purser and within CUCrC by the CUCrC Junior Secretary [Constitution C.6.v]. Membership information shall be shared regularly between these two Officers and made available to the CUY Committee.
The Purser shall receive monies equal to the Yachting Only Membership Fee for each Full Member that participates in a CUY event, save that each Full Member shall count once only per Membership Period of Full Membership. This shall be accrued during the year and paid on request by the CUCrC Senior Treasurer.
Sign-up Preference Policy:
For every event with a limited number of participants, there shall be one Deadline before which Junior Members are signed up in order of application and Senior and Affiliate Members are added to a reserve list. When the Deadline is reached, any remaining spaces shall be allocated to any Senior Members on the reserve list, in order of their application. Any further remaining spaces shall then be allocated to any Affiliate Members on the reserve list, in order of their application.
For weekend trips the Deadline shall be no less than two weeks before the trip. For longer trips the Deadline shall be set by the Trip Organiser in consultation with the Vice-Commodore Sailing and shall be no less than three weeks. For Training Courses the Deadline shall be set by the Training Officers in consultation with the Vice-Commodore Sailing. Trip Organisers should endeavour to find out from Senior and Affiliate Members when they need to know if there is space available for an event.
The CUY Committee reserves the right to allocate spaces with a priority other than that specified here (e.g. a Senior or Affiliate Member who has a particular attribute that would be useful on a trip may be signed up to a trip before the Deadline). Such cases will be agreed between the Trip Organiser, the Vice-Commodore Sailing, and the Commodore.
The CUY Committee shall consist Officers, Skippers and Instructors.
The Commodores (Commodore, Vice- and Rear-Commodore Sailing and Vice- and Rear-Commodore House) shall always be Junior Members.
Other Officers shall be elected from the Junior Membership, except that where the Committee finds by a vote by simple majority that specialist skills are needed for a position and that such skills cannot be satisfactorily found within the Junior Membership the officer for that position may be elected from the Senior Membership.
Senior Members who wish to stand for an Officer position must be proposed and seconded by two Junior Members. There shall be a maximum of two Senior Members on the Committee at any time.
The Committee shall maintain a list of CUY Skippers who may be in charge of yachts in the course of CUY Trips. The Committee shall maintain a list of CUY Instructors who may be instruct on CUY courses. CUY Skippers and Instructors shall be ex-officio Committee Members and may be Junior, Senior or Affiliate Club Members.
The Vice-Commodore Sailing shall appoint a Trip Organiser for each CUY Trip. The Trip Organiser shall be a member of the CUY Committee who handles pre- and post-trip administration.
The Committee shall be divided into House, Sailing and Training divisions for the purposes of functional management and communication.
The House division shall consist of:
Vice-Commodore House
Rear-Commodore House
Purser
Social Officer
Publicity & Sponsorship Officer
Webmaster & Database Administrator
The Sailing division shall consist of:
Vice-Commodore Sailing
Rear-Commodore Sailing
Bosun
Racing Officer
Skippers
The Training division shall consist of:
Senior Training Officer
Theory Training Officer
Practical Training Officer
RYA Principal
Instructors
The Committee may co-opt extra Officers for the proper running of the Club. They may have novel roles or share or supplant roles and responsibilities from those officers listed in the previous clause.
The Commodore shall maintain a list of current Officers and their roles in section G.
Officers shall be elected periodically, usually at the end of each term.
Each Officer shall not serve for more than three terms without re-election.
The Elections shall be held outside of any other event for which a fee is charged and no other restriction shall be placed on the ability of all the Members to attend the elections.
The Elections shall be administrated by the Commodore who shall act as Returning Officer except in cases where the current Commodore stands for re-election or election to another position. In these circumstances he/she shall recuse themselves from the role of Returning Officer for either the whole of the elections or part of the elections in which they are standing. The Commodore shall delegate another Officer to act as Returning Officer and this Officer shall be approved by a simple majority vote of the Voting Members.
Notice of Elections shall be given at least seven days before the date of Elections via the Club's e-mail list. The notice shall include details of the positions that are open for elections together with the job description for each position and the procedure for nomination and election.
Nominations must be submitted to the Commodore at least three days before the date of the elections.
The Commodore shall notify Members of the nominations at least 24 hours before the date of the Elections, at which point emergency nominations may be considered at the discretion of the Commodore.
Only Junior Members may vote at Elections. Each Junior Member shall have one vote which may be cast:
In person at the Elections
By proxy.
Voting by proxy shall be allowed only if the Junior Member sends a signed note or personal e-mail to the Commodore, indicating the name of their proxy and the direction in which their vote is to be cast for any or all of the positions. Where no voting direction is given it should be stated that the proxy may decide the direction of the vote.
All Junior Members voting either in person or by proxy shall henceforth be known as Voting Members.
Any emergency nominations must be accepted by majority vote of the Voting Members present at the elections before being officially entered as nominations for Officers.
Each position shall be elected in turn using the following procedure:
Any emergency nominations for the position shall be voted on and allowed only if a simple majoirty of Voting Members are in favour.
Each candidate for the position shall be allowed to make a hustings speech of up to five minutes.
Five minutes shall be allowed for questions to be put to the candidates. The Returning Officer shall ensure that the questions are phrased for, and answered by, each candidate for a given position, and that no questions are asked which are only applicable to one candidate.
The candidates shall retire if decided to be appropriate by the Returning Officer.
Voting Members will then vote by show of hands and the candidate with the simple majority of votes shall be deemed elected to the position.
If the position is uncontested, the Returning Officer may at his/her discretion waive some of these procedures save that each candidate must make a speech of intent and must be elected by a simple majority of the Voting Members.
In the event of a tied vote the winner will be selected by the drawing of lots supervised by the Returning Officers.
The results of the Elections shall be notified to Members by e-mail and posted on the CUY website.
The Elections shall be ratified as fair and correct by the next CUY Committee Meeting and recorded as such with the results in the minutes of the meeting. Any objections to the Elections from members shall be heard at this point and decided upon by two-thirds majority vote of the Committee.
Officers may resign by giving written notice to the Commodore.
If the CUY Committee votes by a two-thirds majority that an Officer has not performed his/her responsibilities to a basic minimum level, a vote of no confidence will be deemed to have occurred and the Officer will be required to resign.
In the event of a position being vacant, the CUY Committee may co-opt Members to fill the position(s) save that they shall not be co-opted for a period greater than one term or until the next Elections whichever is sooner.
Co-opted Officers shall have the same voting rights and responsibilities as elected Officers.
Co-opted Officers may not make up more than one-third of the CUY Committee.
The CUY Committee shall meet at least once every Full Term.
In CUY Committee Meetings each Officer shall have one vote. Skippers and Instructors shall not vote but may express views and give advice. Voting by proxy is not allowed.
The voting quorum for CUY Committee Meetings shall be the majority of the total number of Officers in the CUY Committee.
Every Ordinary Matter shall be determined by a majority vote by the Officers present.
Changes to the CUY Regulations shall require a vote in favour by two-thirds of the Officers present.
The Club may be dissolved only by a unanimous vote of all the Officers of the Club.
All decisions made by Committee Members as part of the running of the Club shall fall under one of the following categories, which shall indicate the nature of the decision:
Committee members may individually make decisions on matters directly relating to their area of responsibility (job description) which are established Club policy or for which there is a specific mandate or action given at a prior Committee meeting as recorded in the minutes of said meeting.
Committee Members may make interim decisions on matters within their area of responsibility (job description) but for which there is no specific mandate/action from a CUY Committee Meeting or the matter is not one of established policy, provided the decision is made in consultation with the Vice-Commodore of their division.
In the case of all matters relating to external organisations and companies interim decisions must be taken in consultation with the Commodores and the specific Committee member whom the matter concerns (if not one of the aforementioned).
All other matters of new decisions or policies shall be taken exclusively by the CUY Committee at full CUY Committee Meetings.
The duties and responsibilities of the Officers shall be as follows:
Commodore
Head of the Section: Overall responsibility for all the activities of CUY; authorises all activities, finances and external communication on behalf of the Club.
Safety: Overall responsibility for ensuring the correct discharge of duty of care and Club safety policy implementation. He/She delegates the day-to-day duties to the Rear-Commodore Sailing (implementation) and Rear-Commodore House (policy).
Committee Management: Organisation of CUY Committee meetings and elections.
Development: Organisation of long-term development plans for the Club.
Vice-Commodore House
House Officer Support: Authorises the activities of all House Officers and ensures they have details of their responsibilities and that they are properly informed and supported in their positions. Works with the Rear-Commodore House on legal issues and documentation.
Website Updates: Overall responsibility for maintaining up-to-date information on the CUY website in liaison with Officers responsible for each subsection and Webmaster.
Club Shop: Organises orders through the Club Shop.
Rear-Commodore House
Legal: Ensures CUY obtains and sustains insurance policies appropriate to Club activities. Monitors details of charter agreements. Manages contractual disputes with charterers. Liaises with Club legal contacts.
Documentation: Ensures CUY Regulations, CUY Crew Register, Safety Policy, House Style, Skipper Manual, Agenda and Minutes of Committee Meetings and any other key Club documentation stay up-to-date.
Vice-Commodore Sailing
Sailing Officer Support: Authorises the activities of all Sailing Officers and ensures they have details of their responsibilities and that they are properly informed and supported in their positions.
Event Management: Manages the program of CUY Events and social occasions. Ensures a proper and accurate record is kept of Event information both before and after the Event. Liaises with the Rear-Commodore Sailing about upcoming trips to ensure they are viable and successful. Upon completion of trip ensures defects, incident reports, and damage charges are collated as needed.
Yacht Charter: Liaises with yacht charter companies to book yachts for trips.
Rear-Commodore Sailing
Skipper Management: Ensures skippers of upcoming trips are aware of standard Club procedures detailed in the CUY Manual and that they have the necessary information and equipment. Ensures that the crew have completed Crew Registers and paid Membership Fees before going on trips. Ensures records are taken of travel arrangements to and from Event locations.
CUY Kit Management: Manages Club kit hire; Ensures that Club kit is returned and verifies condition of kit upon return.
Purser
Financial management: processing all payments and receipts for activities and permanent funds. Upon completion of events ensures expenses are collated in liaison with the Event Organiser.
Preparing the Financial Statement for termly audit (1st January and 1st April) and end of year Summary of Accounts (1st October).
Membership: management of membership in liaison with Event Organiser, Rear-Commodore Sailing, and the Database Administrator.
Spending plans & strategy: preparing and presenting to the Committee financial forecasts and strategies for the investment and long term financial future of the Club
Bosun
Preparation of CUY yachts so that they are ready to be safely sailed when required for CUY trips
Providing Skippers of CUY yachts with information to allow them to make safe decisions about sailing
Long-term management of CUY yachts so that they continue to be safe to sail and retain their value
Senior Training Officer
Management and delegation of tasks to the Practical Training Officer and Theory Training Officer.
Development and Evaluation of the CUY Training Scheme and courses run within the scheme.
Ensuring compliance with RYA and CUY standards as set out in the training section of the CUY Manual and in the RYA regulations.
Training Programme: Ensuring submission of dates to the Vice-Commodore Sailing for all training activities.
Overseeing the editing and expanding the website training section
Theory Training Officer
Administration of the theory courses in the CUY Training Scheme
Investigation and procurement of training equipment and resources
Practical Training Officer
Administration of the practical elements of the CUY Training Scheme
Management and development of CUY Watch Leaders and Mates
Management and development of potential skippers and instructors
RYA Principal
Ensures a high standard of RYA training and compliance with RYA Regulations.
Social Officer
Social programme: submission of dates for socials to the Vice-Commodore Sailing, and planning of socials, including end of term dinner.
New & potential members introduction: acting at socials to welcome new & potential members and inform them about Club activities.
Racing Officer
CUY Racing Squad training and development: improving racing knowledge and skills.
Race selection & entry management.
Varsity Yacht Race: organising an annual race with Oxford as part of an RORC/JOG or similar offshore/coastal/inshore race.
BUSA Student Yachting Nationals: selecting teams and organising the Club’s involvement in the event.
Publicity & Sponsorship Officer
Organises publicity articles & campaigns: organising Freshers' Fair and Squash as well as ongoing publicity throughout the year.
Manages relations with alumni.
College Reps scheme: implementation and administration of College Reps scheme as a route of dissemination for publicity material and attracting new members.
Sponsorship & funding in co-ordination with the rest of the Committee.
Grants applications; preparing funding applications for the Sports and Societies syndicates, and other funding sources that may be available.
Webmaster & Database Administrator
Database and e-mail lists administration.
Control and maintenance of style, scripts and code validity.
Liaison with SRCF host: ensuring compliance with data regulations and other regulations and maintenance of filespace.
Photos administration: collation of photos from events.
Database and website development.
Any other function required for the good running of CUY shall be attributed to an Officer or any other Junior or Senior Member as chosen by the Committee, where technical expertise is required.
The duties and responsibilities of the Skippers shall be as follows:
Executing their trip including all proper aspects of seamanship and skippering, abiding by the CUY Safety Policy and taking heed of the Trip Management Guidelines contained within the CUY Skippers Manual, but in addition ensuring a proper handover and handback of the yacht using the Club's handover/handback check list.
Giving training as part of the CUY Training Scheme where appropriate, including carrying out CUY Watch Leader and Mate assessments.
Giving details of any damages, incidents or yacht defects promptly to the Trip Organiser and the Vice-Commodore Sailing. For trips on a club-owned yacht, details should also be given to the Bosun. For trips on a chartered yacht, details should also be given to the charter company, but no admission of responsibility should be made to the yacht charter company.
The duties and responsibilities of Trip Organisers shall be as follows:
Planning the trip, including sending an e-mail to the mailing list, publishing a webpage with information about the trip, and maintaining up-to-date information about sign-ups on the trip page, all in liaison with the Vice-Commodore Sailing.
Organising the trip including liaising with the Commodore regarding the safety and manning standards, with the Vice-Commodore Sailing over the yacht to charter, and with the Rear-Commodore Sailing over travel, shopping, Club kit, Crew Registers and Membership Fees.
Completing accurate expenses for the trip and giving these to the Purser promptly after the trip.
The duties and responsibilities of the Instructors shall be as follows:
Instructing on training courses as required by the Theory Officers.
The Financial Year for CUY starts on 1st April. The Financial Year ends on 31 March. The purser will produce a complete Financial Statement for the year to this date and issue it to the committee by the end of the Lent term.
The purser wil produce an interim financial review on 31 September and issue it to the CUY Committee at the next Committee Meeting.
The Income over Expenditure from the current year shall be transferred to a “Reserve Fund†for next year. This will be used for any large purchases that the Committee wishes to make for human or material assets that will last more than one Financial Year. It will also be used as and when decided by the Committee to establish, at least in part, budgets for any officer who requires one.
No Officer shall be liable for any financial debt or other financial obligation incurred whilst acting on behalf of the Club, except as provided in the Damages Policy and Safety Rules.
On dissolution, all assets of the Club shall be transferred to Cambridge University Cruising Club.
Trip and Course Cost Policy
The Trip Fee to be charged to each member participating in a CUY Trip shall be calculated as follows. The result may then be adjusted by the Commodore and Vice-Commodore Sailing to better match the average trip fee for the type of trip and the type of boat sailed.
For trips to be run on a chartered yacht: the charter cost split between the reasonably expected number of participants.
For trips to be run on a Club-owned yacht: a fee agreed with the CUY Committee.
Course fees for Senior and Affiliate Members for training and theory courses shall be up to 60% higher than course fees for Junior Members. This higher fee may be waived by the Commodores.
Fees paid to the Club are non-refundable, unless the Event is cancelled.
By agreement with the Committee, money can be refunded to Members that provide notice and justification for dropping out of an Event for which they signed up in order to maintain “good-willâ€, in which case the loss will be met from the Club funds and not from event funds.
The Commodores may cancel an Event based on insufficient number of fees received, and should not rely on the number of e-mail signups received for that Event.
If a trip takes place on a chartered yacht, but the member fees do not cover the charter fee, the Club may fund the difference from Club funds but not from members’ expenses.
If a trip takes place on a chartered yacht, but the charter cost is lower than the member fees (e.g. because more people than expected participate or some reduction in charter fee is obtained) the difference or part thereof may be refunded to the members.
Instructors teaching on theory courses shall be paid as follows:
£6 per hour of instructing
£4 per hour of marking/invigilating.
£4 per hour of “Course Improvementâ€.
Payments made to Instructors teaching on theory courses shall be reviewed at the beginning of each academic year.
CUY Members will not be held financially responsible for costs incurred in the interest of the safety of crew and yacht (see CUY Safety Rules).
The hirer of any CUY equipment shall be liable to CUY for any costs incurred as a result of damage to or loss of that equipment during the period of hire, excluding circumstances covered by I.1. The Club will ensure that members are aware of this liability before hiring kit.
Any Damages Charges incurred by a vessel as the result of a club trip shall be the responsibility of the Crew of that vessel, excluding circumstances covered by I.1. This includes, but is not limited to, payments from charter damage deposits, the cost of the repair of damages (including labor costs), and third-party insurance claims.
For the purposes of this policy, the Crew is the group of people that appear on the crew list of the affected vessel during the portion of the CUY Trip when the charge was incurred. This could be the entire duration of the CUY Trip in the case of certain charges (eg wear and tear or unexplained loss).
All situations that could result in a Damages Charge will be reported as soon as possible by the skipper to the Vice-Commodore Sailing.
All Damages Charges shall be initially split amongst the crew or part thereof, as determined by the Vice-Commodore and Commodore in consultation with the skipper.
The Vice-Commodore Sailing and Purser will ensure that the Committee discusses possible dispensations at the next committee meeting in line with the clauses below. Officers who were crew shall not vote on possible waivers or refunds.
Where costs are incurred as a result of negligence on the part of one or more of the persons, those persons shall be liable for the entire costs.
Where costs are not a result of negligence, Club may use the Damages Fund to lower all or some of the members’ liability (e.g. Junior Members in preference).
Liability up to £20 per person will generally not be lowered.
Club will endeavour to limit charges to less than £150 per person when liability per person exceeds that amount.
The Club shall publish a reasonable summary of its Damage Policy to members before they confirm their attendance on a CUY Trip.
All Club Skippers will abide by the CUY Safety Policy.
The CUY Safety Policy is incorporated by reference in the CUY Regulations.
Discount schemes are meant to recognise the considerable time, effort and non-refundable costs associated with Trip Organisers’, Skippers’, and Officers' work.
Skippers' Discount: A skipper who has a Coastal Skipper qualification shall receive a £30 discount per trip, up to a total of £150. A skipper who has a Yachtmaster qualification shall receive a £30 discount per trip, up to a total of £300 less any discounts previously received as a Coastal Skipper.
Instructors' Discount: A £30 discount will be given to the instructor of a CUY training course against the reimbursement of the direct costs of gaining the Instructor's Qualification. This will be paid for each training course taught for the CUY until 50% of the direct costs have been reimbursed to the instructor. The direct costs shall consist of the instructor course fee and travel and accommodation costs associated with the course.
A Member who has a complaint against the Club or another Member shall email it to commodore@cuyc.org.uk or vc-house@cuyc.org.uk.
A member who has a complaint against a non-member of the Club shall make it in writing to the Junior Proctor of the University.