Club Pontoon During Cowes Week

Given the pressures on berthing spaces during Cowes Week, the Cowes pontoon during this time is by common consent reserved for members doing The Week.  Yachts not being used during Cowes Week are expected to move off the pontoon during the Week to make room for members who are. Given these pressures and the fact that some yachts are lived aboard during the Week and others come and go for racing, it is particularly inconsiderate to leave yachts unattended for any period if berthed outboard of others. 

At the least, a mobile phone number for the key holder should be left where it may be seen

and used by other members who might be inconvenienced, or for some other reason need to contact the yacht's key holder. 

Yachts berthed outboard of others are to be attended between 0830 and 1100 each morning,

unless specific arrangements have been made with all craft inboard.

All craft using the Cowes pontoon must fly the club burgee from the masthead if they have a mast, from the highest part of the craft if without a mast. 

The burgee should be on a staff, as befits the burgee of the oldest yacht club in the UK, and not left hanging like an item of laundry. This rule applies equally to racing yachts as to cruising yachts: go here for tips on getting the burgee to the masthead if you are not already so fitted.  Racing yachts not fitted with masthead flag halyards can comply with this requirement by the simple expedient of sending the burgee aloft on the main halyard, using a light line as a messenger for recovery.

In addition, yachts using the Cowes pontoon must display the club badge and initials

on the transom, in such a position that they may be seen both from the water and from the pontoon.

The reason for these two rules is to ensure not only that only bona fide RTYC yachts use the pontoon, but also to let other users of the pontoon and the Cowes Harbour Master see that the yacht in question has every right to be on the pontoon. These rules thus apply as equally to RIBs and smaller craft as they do to larger yachts.
 
Given that both the burgee and badge must be worn when on the pontoon, it follows that the privilege of using the Club's pontoon is not available to non-members to whom a member's yacht might have been loaned or chartered.

RIBs should be left only on the inside of the pontoon

- but preferably kept off the pontoon altogether. Given the comings and goings RIBs left unattended are very vulnerable to damage.

Three of our J80s will be doing the Week, chartered by members, and these will be berthed together on the inside of the pontoon at the southern (up-river) end.

The 'RTYC Committee Boat' berth on the inside of the pontoon at the northern (Solent) end is for Cowes Week reserved for the Vice Commodore and Dreamcatcher.