Introduction to Fractional Sailing

Broad Reach Sailing has arrived in Chicago! Experience all the pleasures of sailing your own boat without the hassles or expenses of ownership. Our unique sailing program allows you to maximize all the privileges and enjoyment of sailing without the worries of docking fees, repairs and off-season storage costs. With Broad Reach Sailing, you will be sailing a 2007 Dufour 365 for more time and less money than you ever dreamed.

Broad Reach Member Programs

We offer two program options Broad Reach Membership and Close Reach Membership.

Points of Sail
Sail when you want to. not when you're assigned to!

Our system for sharing your Dufour Yacht is truly unique and innovative. Designed and developed by University of Chicago statisticians, and validated by lifelong sailors, the Points of Sail program ensures that each member can put together a sailing schedule that meets his or her needs, prioritizing whatever is personally most important, while ensuring that the timeslots are allocated fairly between members.

The problem with other systems of sharing a boat, is that they make a
lot of assumptions about what you want, and they assign you days you didn't
ask for.

• Is a Friday evening in mid-May worth as much to you as a Friday
  evening in August?
  
• If a fancy computer algorithm assigns you a time slot you can't use,
  should that count as part of your usage? (What makes matters worse, if
  you hang on the spot just in case, nobody else will have those days
  available either.)
  
• What if you are out of town for the whole month of July? Why get
  assigned dates you won't use?

Points of Sail is designed so that each participant can set his or her own priority. Using a points-based bidding system, members will be able to structure a schedule that meets their needs. If your primary goal is a week-end cruise, you can bid to spend more of your points on a block of time that allows you to do so. Similarly, if your goal is boating during Chicago's special waterfront events, getting in as many weeknight sails as possible, or taking the family out on Saturdays, the Points of Sail program will help you get what you want.

The system is simple and intuitive, although the explanation may seem
complex at first. Basically, it works like this. Each member has a Points of Sail
account that begins the season with 1000 points. On the first day of each
month from May until August, an additional 1000 points is added to each
account. On a monthly basis, a "sealed auction" is held for the upcoming time
slots.

Each member can divide his points and bid on as many or as few time slots as he or she wants. A bid can be for a single half-day slot, or for a block of consecutive slots. Each month's bidding process sets the schedule for the upcoming month, but also allows members to bid on and reserve slots in future months. Points not used stay in the member's account and can be used for future months, or can be spent on short-notice sailing.

The Points of Sail system will give each time slot to the high bidder and will deduct those points from that account. It will not assign members anything that they didn't ask for. After this schedule is completed, it will be distributed immediately to all members, and a second round of bidding will allow members to make adjustments or pick up additional time slots, based on their points left after round one.

Over the course of each season, each Broad Reach member will have 5000
points to spend on the time slots. The minimum price for any time slot is 100 points. Thus, if you have a lot of flexibility in your schedule, you could end up with as many as 50 half-day time slots. However, if you really want to make sure that you have the boat on the third weekend in June, you could bid most of your points to make sure you get those dates.

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