Southwold Sailing Club reaches cash target to safeguard future

A crowdfunding campaign to safeguard the future of a sailing club has reached its target after more than £30,000 was raised.

Southwold Sailing Club, in Suffolk, needed to build a new concrete slipway to ensure safe access to the tidal water on the River Blyth.

The current slipway, used to launch dinghies, has worn away and the club launched a fundraising campaign in August to raise the cash towards the overall sum of £80,000 needed to fund the project.

Sport England had agreed to donate £15,000 of match funding once 25% of the target had been reached from 100 unique pledges and the club said it's now confident of raising the rest of the funds required from other grants.

The concrete surface of the slipway, which was built by volunteers in the early 1980s, eroded and the club said dinghy launching could now only happen at high tide, limiting the sailing opportunities available.

The club's commodore Henry Walker said: "It's been absolutely thrilling that everyone has been really getting behind this project.

"Not only has support come from members of the club, both past and present, but the whole community has pulled together to raise just over £30,000 in such a quick period of time.

"We've now got several different grant applications in and we are hoping to hear from them shortly and we are feeling confident of being able to reach our final goal of £80,000. If everything goes to plan, we're looking at work beginning on the new slipway by the spring or early next summer."

Mr Walker added that the club was "very much a grassroots association for all ages and abilities" but he said without the slipway it had no direct access onto the water.

Earlier this year, club managers said the organisation would be put under threat without the cash injection.

The club was founded in 1949 and celebrated its 75th anniversary this year.