{"id":586493,"date":"2026-08-16T14:28:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T14:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/586493\/"},"modified":"2026-08-16T14:28:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T14:28:09","slug":"yachting-clubs-say-sailing-in-israel-affordable-drawing-diverse-crowd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/586493\/","title":{"rendered":"Yachting clubs say sailing in Israel affordable, drawing diverse crowd"},"content":{"rendered":"

Often thought of as a sport reserved for the mega-rich, sailing clubs in Israel have been saying in recent years that their clientele is increasingly diverse and that taking a yacht<\/a> out for a day on the water has become increasingly affordable and accessible.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the past three or four years, it’s become a real trend. More and more people from sectors that usually didn’t get their skipper\u2019s license,\u201d David Simon, one of the owners of the Derech Hayam (Via Maris) sailing school and club, told The Jerusalem Post at the Herzliya Marina<\/a> earlier this month.<\/p>\n

The club, one of a handful of sailing clubs located at the marina, lets members book one of its 14 yachts through an app, without a limit on the number of outings or additional per-sailing fees.<\/p>\n

“Usually, yachting is considered as a rich people’s sport, but actually everybody can handle it. It’s not too expensive,\u201d Simon said. \u201cIt costs similar to any other hobby that you can find, like cycling or running or going to a swimming pool or practicing a martial art.\u201d<\/p>\n

Derech Hayam\u2019s monthly membership costs NIS 1,100 (approximately $370), which, while considerably more expensive than many other hobbies, is a fraction of the monthly cost of maintaining a privately owned yacht.<\/p>\n

\"AA woman sits aboard one of the boats belonging to the Derech Hayam (Via Maris) yachting club and school. August, 2026. (credit: SAM HALPERN)Yachting clubs cheaper than maintenance on owned boat<\/p>\n

A February analysis from Bizportal found that, on average, yacht owners in Israel spend NIS 5,500 monthly on things such as mooring, maintenance and insurance, not including the cost of purchasing the yacht itself.<\/p>\n

The NIS 1,100 membership fee, which includes the various perks of being a club member, including the classes required to acquire a skipper\u2019s license, Simon said, has allowed yachting to become a hobby for a larger and much more diverse audience than in the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s not only growth, but it’s also which people are coming into it,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have 40% women at the moment. Twenty years ago, there were hardly any women doing it. We have elderly people, people who are 21, 22 coming out of the army. Especially in the last year, they want to do something new, so they\u2019re coming to sail.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dana, one of those women who has jumped at the chance to get a skipper\u2019s license, told the Post that she pursued the license out of a love for the sea and that schools like Derech Hayam have provided a convenient means to get it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s become so accessible, not only that it’s financially accessible, but also there are super cool schools like this,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Dana was speaking at the very end of the six-month course to get her license. The following day, she said, she would take her final exam on the theory side of boating. After that, she would only have the practical exam left.<\/p>\n

Yachting clubs like Derech Hayam, she continued, are breaking down social barriers and making women feel welcome in a sport they may previously have wanted to pursue but felt excluded from.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone’s welcome here. It doesn’t matter what socioeconomic background you’re from or what religion,\u201d she said. \u201cThere’s a whole group of women. But, I can tell from the reactions of the older club members and teachers that they’re like, \u2018wow, the female presence is growing.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Official data also point to a broader rise in Israelis entering recreational boating, although publicly available government figures do not seem to isolate yacht skipper licenses from other categories.<\/p>\n

\"BoatsBoats at the Herzliya Marina. August, 2026. (credit: SAM HALPERN)<\/p>\n

According to annual reports from the Transportation Ministry\u2019s<\/a> Shipping and Ports Authority, 6,178 new small-craft operators were certified in 2020. The figure jumped to 8,594 in 2021 and 11,856 in 2022. In 2024, the authority certified 10,056 new operators.<\/p>\n

While it is unclear how much new yacht skippers are driving that growth, Simon says yachting\u2019s current accessibility makes the sport available to everyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s not something that you cannot afford. Everybody can afford it,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have a lot of people who come from all over: from the North, from the South, from the Center. So, it’s not only the number of people, which is obviously going up, but it’s also the variety of the people who are trying this sport.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Often thought of as a sport reserved for the mega-rich, sailing clubs in Israel have been saying in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586494,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[72253,85,46,43,15874,105,17714,4164,15880],"class_list":["post-586493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-herzliya","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news","tag-sailing","tag-sports","tag-transportation-ministry","tag-women","tag-yacht"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}