Advice please on applying for grants for ODC

[Keith Bartlett]

Hi folks, our sailing club- Open Dinghy Club (ODC) is being forced to leave its home for the past 44 years, at the end of this year. We are investigating alternative sites in our part of the West Sussex coast. Hence the question about grants. We have had no experience of going down this track, so we are after any info/ experience that Sprint 15 members have had in their respective clubs. Apart from obvious donors such as the Lottery Fund, possibly the RYA??, are there others? I guess that it can be quite a slow progress , has anyone got a handle on the kind of timelines involved?

Cheers Keith (FREDDIE 1962)

[Liam]

What about Sport England?

On the Island we have the Isle of Wight Sports Foundation who can help with things like this. There is also the Hampshire and IW Community Foundation. There must be others like this.

Best of luck.

[Jon Pearse]

Thats not very sporting! I must admit to not having been involved but marconi have been successful in the past at obtaining funding for things you might like to drop our secretary an email address is on our website. His name is Ray Ball hopefully he will be able to point you in the right direction. He is a great mine of info! And all useful!

[Bob Carter]

Hi folks, our sailing club- Open Dinghy Club (ODC) is being forced to leave its home for the past 44 years, at the end of this year. We are investigating alternative sites in our part of the West Sussex coast. Hence the question about grants. We have had no experience of going down this track, so we are after any info/ experience that Sprint 15 members have had in their respective clubs. Apart from obvious donors such as the Lottery Fund, possibly the RYA??, are there others? I guess that it can be quite a slow progress , has anyone got a handle on the kind of timelines involved?

Cheers Keith (FREDDIE 1962)

Hi Keith,
Corr what a pain. I should not think a grant and rebuild is going to be easy or quick. Is it not on to chat up Littlehampton S.C. or Worthing S.C to get a special deal which enables your members to join cheaply as a group and maybe to form a special section (as I know many of your members cruise & fun sail rather than race). If you need caravan spaces too that could be tricky.
Just a thought.
Regards
Bob

[Keith Bartlett]

Firstly, many thanks to Liam and Jon, for their very prompt responses. I am following up both of their suggestions.

Bob, it is indeed a real pain, and it doesnt look like a smooth road to find a solution. Initial approaches to both Worthing SC and Arun YC at Littlehampton have indicated that there are very limited boat spaces available at each venue, which would mean the ODC effectively splitting up, leaving the majority of members without anywhere to store boats or to sail. Hence our quest to try and find some suitable available land ( we dont have any caravan responsibilities now ) somewhere within our existing bailiwick. Time is not on our side, ( we have to quit by end 2016 ) and its pretty clear that going down the grants route will be quite slow, so timelines dont look good either.

Hopefully the great Sprint 15 community will come up with some advice / info, which may help us on our way.

cheers

Keith

[Andrew Hannah]

Dear Keith,

I am sorry to hear your club is to close.

The very same thing happened to the Halfway Yacht Club, which was about half mile up-river to Thorpe Bay. It was a small but keen club, including Albacores, Solos, Phantoms and RS's. The club was leased from Premier Inn on short letting. Out of the blue, Premier decided it wanted the land for a hotel.

The club was wound up, the assets sold, and proceeds distributed to the members. Most of them joined Thorpe Bay YC and we were, of course, pleased to accept them.

So Bob's suggestion would seem the best approach.

[Jenny Ball]

Hi Keith

Really sorry to hear that. As with others experience, Steeple Bay sailing club in our neck of the woods lots it's tenancy and was disbanded with members joining local clubs including ours.

In terms of grants - we secured a Sport England Grant towards the cost of a RIB and another one towards the cost of a rowing Gig. Both were in the order of magnitude of £10k. We have also applied for a larger Inspired Facilities loan to improve facilities at our club. Our first application was rejected, we have resubmitted and are waiting to hear.

We worked with our local RYA representative to give us advice / support on our applications and they should be able to advise you on any local support too that might be available.