How the Cruise Sign-Up Procedure Works

The on-line sign-up system provides a comfortable and fair way for CSC members to sign up for club cruises. Sometimes there are more people interested in joining a cruise than places available. In this case, a fair lottery is performed to determine who will be on board and who will not, for that cruise. It does not matter at all when you sign up, provided it is before the closing time of the lottery.

There will be a waiting list whenever the cruise is fully booked. Sometimes another boat will be added to the cruise, or a space might unexpectedly open up. In these cases, people from the waiting list may finally get the opportunity to join, though.

Every member may also sign up one guest in addition to herself or himself. The guest need not be a member. The lottery will try to keep you and your guest together, giving either both or none of you a place on board. Only in rare cases, you might be the last person on board, while your guest is the first person on the waiting list.

The lottery works by randomly assigning priorities to all sign-ups. Therefore, when you sign up before the closing time of the lottery, you will find yourself at a random position within the list of sign-ups. The list changes continuously, and people signing up after you might be lucky to get higher priority than you, shifting you down the list. Furthermore, people signed up may cancel their sign-up, in which case you might be shifted up again. 

You can cancel your sign-up any time until the sign-up is closed, and also sign up again after canceling. But as the system will remember your initial priority, cancel and re-signup will never give you a better chance of joining!

All of this applies to keelboat cruises. Dinghy cruises work differently - see here.

How to ...

This sections gives short instructions for typical members' tasks within the sign-up time.

I don't see the Cruise List on the web site

You have to be a logged in member to see the cruise list. Login, then go to Activities->Cruising->Cruise List

How do I sign up at first?

You have to be a club member with a currently active subscription to sign up for a cruise. If you are a member whose subscription has lapsed, you must renew your membership first.

Go to Activities->Cruising->Cruise List. You will see a list of cruises. Cruises with a red background are closed to signup. Cruises with a yellow background are past lottery end, but  you can still sign up. Cruises with a green background are open for signup and before lottery end.

Click on the cruise and fill out the sign-up form. You can add a guest at this time (you can also add one later). Emergency contact information is required for yourself and your guest (if you add a guest). Click Submit when you are done.

How do I sign up a guest?

You can sign up a guest when you sign up. Just add the guest's name and emergency contact information in the sign-up form.

If you did not enter a guest when you signed up, you can add one later. Click on the cruise (as above). You will see that you are signed up. Click on Edit to get a form where you can change your own information and add a guest. Remember that emergency contact information for both you and your guest is required.

Click Submit when you are done.

Do you really need my guest's name?

Yes, you should sign up a guest only if the guest is committed to attend. You can add a committed guest any time before Lottery End without penalty - your guest's lottery order will be the same as if you'd signed them up initially.

How can I drop my guest from my sign-up?

Click on the cruise (as above), then click Edit. Delete the Guest Name from the form. Click Submit.

Fields for Signing Up

Below you find the list of input fields to sign up for a cruise. All fields not marked as optional have to be filled in.

How can I change guests?

Click on the cruise (as above), then click Edit. Change the Guest Name on the form, and make sure to enter the correct emergency contact information.

Click Submit.

How can I change a phone number or an email address?

Click on the cruise (as above), then click Edit. Change the information, and click Submit.

Why does my guest have a list position way behind me?

If you add a guest after the lottery has ended, your guest will always be put to the very end of the list, no matter what position you are at. Sorry, we cannot handle this in any other way because we want to guarantee that nobody will ever lose a spot on board after the lottery has ended.

How do I cancel my sign-up.

Click on the cruise (as above), then click Remove. This will remove both you and your guest (if you have one), but it will preserve your lottery priority in case you want to reinstate it later.

I have canceled my sign-up. Can I still join?

Yes, if the cruise is still open for sign-ups. Click on the cruise (as above), then click Reinstate. Click Edit to add a guest, and then click Submit.

When and how am I notified whether I am on board a cruise?

You can check any time to see how many people have signed up, who they are, and what their (and your) relative positions are for the cruise. From the cruise list, click on the cruise, and then click on Crew List. It is a list of sign-ups in lottery order, with a tentative indication of On-Board or not, based on the number of crew slots. This all can change before the lottery end, as more people sign up, others drop outs, boats are added, etc. At lottery end, the crew list is determined, so checking it then will tell you whether you are on the cruise (after lottery end, the cruise have a yellow background, and after sign-up end it will have a red background. You will also get an email within 12 hours of the lottery end time informing you of your On-Board status. If you are not on-board, you may become so if others cancel or if a boat is added to the cruise. In that case, you will get an email advising you.

What about dinghy cruises?

Dinghy cruises operate differently because of the higher skill level required of crew members. High winds and seas, strong currents, and shipping traffic mean that everyone on board needs a high level of skill.

Each dinghy cruise is run differently, so follow the instructions on the cruise announcement.

In particular, there is no lottery for dinghy cruises, and the Cruise Skipper determines who is on the cruise.

Phases of Sign-Up

For every cruise, the cruising skipper determines two crucial points in time, called:

1. Closing time of lottery

2. Closing time of sign-up

The following sections describe the three phases that are distinguished by these points in time.

Before the Closing Time of the Lottery

Until the lottery is closed, every member signing up gets a random priority (drawn with an equal priority distribution). The same priority applies for both the member and one guest, if a guest is signed up in addition. You may move further down the list if further sign-ups happen. You may move up the list when members cancel their sign-ups for this cruise.

If you have canceled your sign-up and re-signup before the lottery has been closed, your priority will never change. You will regain your former list position on re-signup (however, further sign-ups might have you pushed down the list after canceling).

In this phase, the cruise will be displayed on green background on the cruise list page.

After the Closing Time of the Lottery

After the lottery (but not the sign-up) has been closed, every member newly signing up and every added guest gets a priority lower than any other applicant. In other words, you will always be queued at the very end of the list if you sign up after the closing time of the lottery. If there are still free places available, you will get them. Otherwise, you will always be placed on the waiting list.

This means that after the closing time of the lottery, nobody will lose her or his place on board. You can still cancel your sign-up yourself, but you cannot be pushed down the list by further sign-ups. But you may, of course, shift up the list (and maybe on board) when other people cancel.

If you have signed up during the lottery but add a guest later, you and your guest will not necessarily be at consecutive list positions. This must be done this way, since otherwise your guest would push people with "safe" places off the boat(s). For the same reason, you will lose your former priority if you cancel and re-signup after the closing time of the lottery. For on re-signup, you will be put to the very end of the list.

In this phase, the cruise will be displayed on yellow background on the cruise list page.

After the Closing Time of the Sign-Up

After the sign-up has been closed, you can neither sign up nor cancel. This is a good time for the skipper to print out the crew list, because it will not change anymore. The skipper takes over the responsibility of any later changes at this point of time. But the skipper can still increase the number of spots available (e.g. when another boat is added), in which case people benefited are still notified by the system.

Call or email the skipper if you are signed up, but want to notify her or him that you will not show up. Come to the dock if you are not signed up, but hope to get a free spot nevertheless (when other people do not show up).

In this phase, the cruise will be displayed on red background on the cruise list page.

Process by Example

Suppose we have the following cruise to sign up to:

Thus, the lottery phase will end at noon on July 2^nd, and the sign-up will be stopped one day later.

Now, let Alice sign up with her guest Zara. This is before the end of the lottery, thus the system draws a random priority for her that will later determine her list position. Let us assume she draws 42 (lower number is better!). After her sign-up, the system responds with the following crew list:

Then, Bob signs up just himself, and he draws priority 71. So Bob finds himself listed after Alice and her guest, but still on board:

Now, Charlie logs in and signs up himself and his guest Yang. He gets 25 as his random priority, which places him and his guest between Zara and Bob on the preliminary crew list:

Now, 5 people have signed up, but there will only be 3 places available. Note theOnBoard column, which indicates who has a place on board at the respective point of time and who has not. 

In this example, Charlie is very unlucky to find himself separated from his guest. Due to the fair lottery, there is no way to prevent this from happening occasionally.

Now suppose it is afternoon on July 2^nd, meaning the lottery has ended. Thus,Alice cannot lose her two places any more, and Charlie is (at least) sure of the place for himself.

Sign-up is still possible. Say Diane signs up herself. She does not get a random priority any more, but is just put to the end of the list:

Finally, Alice decides to cancel her and her guest's sign-up, which is still possible until noon July 3^rd. Now, Yang and Bob move up enough to get a (sure!) place, both get an e-mail notification about the change, and the list looks like this:

After noon July 3^rd, the list is frozen and can safely be printed out for reference by Capt. Ahab. His special skipper's list looks like the following:

Capt. Ahab gets all necessary contact information,.