National Lottery Grant

Western Isles Yacht Club is delighted to announce that we have been awarded almost £6,000 in National Lottery funding to support our community watersports activities. Our club, which has been running for over 60 years will use the funds to help continue running sailing cadets while adding kayaking to its remit. We run these activities on a voluntarily basis for the benefit everyone in the community. Our Wednesday evening sailing Cadets are attended by local children, where they learn how to sail, gain water confidence, socialise and exercise. The new grant will allow us to kit out a fleet of kayaks, which were generously donated by Christine Morrell. We are actively seeking for help from adults in the community to run the kayaking sessions. If you are interested in being trained up, please complete this 3 minute survey. Once kids sessions are up and running, we will work on adult sessions. Given the lack of indoor social and sporting opportunities during the pandemic, we anticipate that our club activities will be especially important to people when we recommence in May.The new funding from The National Lottery Community Fund, which distributes money raised by National Lottery players for good causes and is the largest community funder in the UK, will see the purchase of new sails for existing dinghies as well as purchasing buoyancy aids and wetsuits for kayaking and sailing. It will also fund a course to train locals in kayaking safety and proficiency in order to help run club kayaking sessions. Neil Hutton, Secretary of the WIYC says “We’re delighted that The National Lottery Community Fund has recognised the importance of continuing and expanding our community watersports activities. Kayaking and sailing are more than exercise and fresh air – they provide opportunities for team-building, developing maritime skills and learning about our marine environment.” Conor Ryan, who applied for the grant says: “As an avid kayaker myself, I am delighted that the sport will become accessible to more people in the community – we live in one of the best places in Europe for sea-kayaking and it is a great way to experience local wildlife, geology and history.”