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We are aiming to secure the future of sailing at York by purchasing a new fleet of 6 Firefly Dinghies. We have been using the same boats for 16 years and the condition of our boats is now really starting to affect how we sail. This new fleet is crucial to ensure the club’s survival and the future of sailing at the University of York, they will allow us to improve our performance, open up opportunities for our members and increase accessibility in the sport.
We are a medium-sized club with a family-like atmosphere, but we punch above our weight in the York sports community. Our club consists of a windsurfing team, a yachting team, sailing race team as well as a beginner and recreational team consisting of complete beginners trying our sport for the first time. We recently competed in the BUCS team racing qualifiers and finished 2nd in the north! This year we have also finished top university team at three events we have competed at including winning Brummy Broom. We have also run our first RYA course ever allowing people who have never sailed before the opportunity to improve their skills. YUSWC is on a high at the moment and we really want this winning streak to continue, however with the state of our boats this is becoming more and more difficult.
Last year was also one of the most successful ever with the club winning ‘Team of the Year’ at the end-of-year sports awards alongside being nominated for Yorkshire University Team of the Year.
Any donations, large or small,will enable us to secure the future of sailing at York, enabling future years of students to access the fantastic sport of sailing.
Our current fleet of 6 fireflies allow our race team to train and practice, allowing us to compete at events across the country. Our boats also allow our club to run recreational sessions for anyone who wants to attend and go sailing. But our current fleet is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain to the standard required. We need your help to buy a new fleet of fireflies so that we can continue to train and share our love of sailing.
We have already raised £32,000 - now we need your help to raise the remaining £6,000 in the next 6 months. Any donations you can make will help us towards our goal and will be very much appreciated.
If we are unsuccessful at raising the full amount required to buy the new fleet, all money raised will be saved until we have raised the full amount.
Buying new boats will have a massive impact on all members of the society. The poor condition of our boats is starting to affect how we sail both recreationally and during race training. In team racing it is critical to have a fleet of 6 identical boats, a so-called ‘flight’. Our boats are now getting to the stage where maintaining them to be similar in speed is very difficult and it’s affecting our ability to train. We spend lots of time during training sessions fixing our boats rather than improving our skills.
A new flight of boats would allow our society to run more efficiently, meaning that more students would be able to learn how to sail. Your donation will help us ensure sailing remains at York for a very long time as the boats you help us buy will last us a very long time.
Our club isn’t just great at racing it also has an amazing beginners and recreational team. We had unprecedented interest at the start of the year and recently we have had four new members pass their stage 1. We have also run an intro to race session and have plans for more courses in the new year when it's warmer. We would love to plan more events for our beginner and recreational members however it is difficult when we are constantly having to fix our boats.
Our club is more than just sailing! We conduct socials each week which are a great way for the club to spend time together. We're a warm, welcoming, family like community and the boats are the heart of that. Without them we wouldn’t be able to meet up and do the thing we all love.
Below are some of the challenges we will complete as part of the week:
We’ll be documenting all our challenges and progress on social media.
Find us on instagram: @yorksailing
On tiktok: yuswc
Or visit our website: https://www.yuswc.co.uk
We would love you to donate as much or as little as you are able and any donations are hugely appreciated. Any donations that you can make will bring us one step closer to achieving our goal and ensuring sailing continues to be accessible at the University of York for the next 10 years or more.
If you are looking to support an individual athlete or challenge please put a message with your donation saying who!
Alternatively, if you are unable to donate then please do spread the word by signing up as a Challenge Week ambassador for our club, and sharing our social media posts to your own socials so as many people as possible can read about our efforts!