Inspired Facilities success for sailing clubs

Sailors out on the water at Mylor Sailability © Mylor Sailability

Almost 20 sailing projects have successfully secured funding through the sixth round of Sport England's Inspired Facility Fund.

From extended changing rooms to new boat storage, this funding round which totals more than £700,000 will help sailing clubs to refurbish or upgrade their facilities so they are accessible to all potential participants.

Mylor Sailability in Falmouth have been awarded over £48,000 for their 'Let's get going' project which aims to build an accessible base in Mylor harbour with classrooms and training facilities. The funding will also provide a specially adapted pontoon and hoist.

"The new classroom and social area will come complete with a sophisticated projector and hearing loop system to enable us to deliver shore based sessions to all participants. It will also create a social area for members and a shelter in bad weather" explains Tracey Boyne, founder of Mylor Sailability.

"The extra pontoon will make an incredible difference in getting participants into the boats giving us a lot more room to do this. With the addition of the hoist, this will enable us to widen the level of disability that we can accommodate."

Burton Sailing Club in Nottingham will receive £49,000 to expand their sailing, windsurfing and powerboating training. This follows a previous Sport England grant which enabled the club to construct a new bespoke training centre in 2012.

Burton SC Commodore, David Bell said: "Our first phase of expansions enabled us to treble our annual training provision during 2013 and with this second phase secured we'll be in a strong position to develop an even wider programme of courses including windsurfing, race training and much more".

RYA Sport Development Manager Duncan Truswell commented: "We're extremely grateful for this programme which has provided a timely boost to improve often ageing and occasionally unsuitable facilities. As demand increases for this fund across all sports, its fantastic news that these sailing organisations have been successful with their applications.

"Welcoming and comfortable facilities are a really important part of delivering rewarding and enjoyable experiences. These projects are a great credit to the vision and hard work of the volunteers in our clubs and will encourage and enable both newcomers and existing sailors to get out on the water more often".

Inspired Facilities is Sport England's £110 million programme that funds the renovation and modernisation of local sports facilities.

More information about how to apply for Inspired Facilities funding is available here.

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