Gold Card Membership Since 1998 I have made the annual trip from Newport to St. Martin aboard a Swan. Since 2000 I have been making the round trip running the Offshore Swan Program sailing the Swan Charter Fleet between Newport and St. Martin In 2004 we bought a Swan 48 that we have been campaigning in the Winter Caribbean Racing circuit ever since. We have also participated in the last two Swan American Regattas in Newport, The past two Swan Rendezvous’ in the BVI’s and this year we are going to the Swan Worlds in Sardinia Italy All this has put us in the unique position of having a good relationship with both the American Swan Owner’s Group and the American Swan representatives and brokers here on the East Coast. A relationship that will soon allow us to offer our OPO crew networking service to Swan owners, first in the US and hopefully later all over the world. However we need to be careful implementing the new OPO membership Gold Card membership to make sure we only send qualified, courteous, neat and reliable crew to Swan owners and their skippers. After the 1st of the year a number of OPO members will be notified and mailed a new Gold Card Membership card. Gold card members will fill out a new short form résumés sheet and will need to sign and return the OPO “Code of Conduct”. All other members with not enough offshore miles or whom we have not met yet will have the opportunity to rectify this and become a new Gold Card member in the future. There is no extra cost to becoming a gold card member this year. Gold card members will get e-mails about opportunities to sail aboard a Swan in addition to all the regular OPO notices. It will take us a few months to get the program going and get the word out to all the Swan owners. We want to have a base of 50 OPO members that are interested in sailing aboard a Swan for free. After the program is up and running the annual dues in September will be a bit more than regular OPO membership. There is added value to being able to sail aboard Swans of all sizes and to get the chance to make connections with full time Swan skippers and owners that may want to invite you again or for a regatta. A look at the following Code of Conduct that new OPO Gold Card OPO Members will be asked to sign and the Q & A section that we are sending to American Swan owners will further explain how the new program will work and how it will benefit certain qualified members. Home | Membership | Message Board | About OPO | Upcoming Rallies | Contact Us For more information call 1-800-4PASSAGE (1-800-472-7724)