AYC Schools Sailing Trust

2026 has been a fabulous year for AYC Schools Sailing. 11 schools with over 200 students have taken part in an activity day during the month of June – the first week was windy but then June delivered some of the most idyllic sailing days for experiencing your first taste of sailing.

We saw some terrific talent on the water and 6 students were selected to further their sailing experience on the AYC summer courses – Flynn, Rocco and Jessica on Stage 1 and Ethan, Tabatha and Mollie completed Stage 2. Among these students we discovered that Ethan, whose mother is a crew member on the Aldeburgh lifeboat, is Eddie Strowger’s great great nephew. Flynn from Snape Primary, born after the death of his grandfather, who was a yachting writer from New Zealand. Tabatha’s grandfather was a boat builder locally who was born in one of the last cottages south of Martello to disappear into the sea.

Both Ethan and Flynn were awarded the Stay in Suffolk Seamanship Certificate. Evidently sailing is in the blood for these students and we are now exploring ways of enabling them to pursue their love of sailing throughout the year.

We also learned that at Saxmundham Primary’s Year 6 Leaver’s gathering, when students were asked to talk about their time at school, 6 of the pupils said that their day at Aldeburgh Yacht Club was the best!

The Iken Race Festival was held in August, with over 80 boats racing and a day onshore for music and fun. Thank you for the support as over £1,000 was raised for AYC Schools Sailing.

Finally, a big thank you to our volunteers, sponsors and donors who help make this programme happen. If you are keen to get involved in AYC Schools Sailing, please do get in touch via the office as we would love to hear from you.

Overview

The AYC Schools Sailing Trust (SST) has been established to get young people from schools and youth groups in the Suffolk community on the water to benefit from the life skills that sailing and water-based sports can encourage – creativity, confidence, teamwork, communication, determination, and independence. It is aimed at young people from the Suffolk community who have not had the chance to learn to sail or experience other water-based activities.

Each year, AYC SST runs a successful programme at AYC. It runs for 12 days over 4 weeks in June and children from local schools have a great sailing experience. Over 50 volunteers are actively involved, providing over two-thirds of the instructor, safety-boat and shore-based support. In addition, AYC SST employed qualified instructors providing extra employment opportunities to our team of young instructors. All this is supported by many generous donors and supportive and repeat sponsors.

An educational outreach programme runs in advance of the sailing activities, so children arrive with some level of knowledge and perhaps fewer nerves. It teaches pupils about the history, geography and environment of the river on which they will learn to sail.

“The day our children spent at Aldeburgh Yacht Club opened up a whole new world of experiences for the children from our school. Not only was it an amazing opportunity for them to experience something new, take them out of their comfort zone and build their confidence, it also provided them with the opportunity to have first class sailing tuition. They all had a fantastic day.” Lucie Fairweather, Head teacher, Eyke Primary School.

Getting Involved by Offering Skills and Time

To complement the paid instructors, the programme relies on volunteers who can commit time in June (the programme runs every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday – morning and afternoon) to deliver the programme. As you can imagine, many helpers are required to provide a high level of safety cover. In addition to sailing instructors, the roles range from shore-based helpers, qualified safety boat drivers, safety boat crew, and good sailors who are keen to learn how to teach sailing to young people. Everyone involved much enjoyed themselves, experienced great camaraderie and sense of achievement and new members found it a great way to get to know others. The use of iVolunteer makes scheduling much easier for volunteer and organiser alike.

Every year there is a Volunteer Morning to enable our volunteers to meet each other and to understand the skills needed to teach sailing, or be safety boat helm and crew. If you would like to know more, do contact Susie Rixon, susierixon3@gmail.com, who co-ordinates the volunteers.

AYC SST is committed to safeguarding children taking part in its activities and encourages all those involved to aware of this policy.

AYC SST Safeguarding Policy

Charity Finances

The AYC Schools Sailing Trust charitable status was confirmed in 2019, following a hugely successful response from AYC Members and sponsors to support this initiative with an initial £20,000 donated following the then Commodore’s appeal. Many thanks to all.

We would also like to extend our appreciation to all our generous sponsors – holidaycottages.co.uk, James White Drinks, RF Upson, Ward & McKenzie, Suffolk Community Foundation & St James’s Place – without whom hundreds of children would not have experienced sailing and enjoyed time on the River Alde over the years.

Further donations enable AYCSST to sponsor children from local primary schools to take part in an RYA training course in the Summer.

Charitable status ensures we have the benefit of Gift Aid from donations going forward.

How You Can Donate

We are always grateful to anyone who can support us in any way as one of our many priorities is to ensure the programme is sustainable. You can donate via:

AYC Schools Sailing Trust
Barclays Bank
Sort code: 20-16-12
Account: 43784150

If you are paying through CAF – the charity number is 1184768.

If you can also download and complete the Gift Aid form and send it to office@aldeburghyc.org.uk, or post to: FAO Ellie, Aldeburgh Yacht Club, Slaughden Road, Aldeburgh, Suffolk, IP15 5NA.

This will enable AYC SST to claim the Gift Aid.

Find Out More

If you would like to learn more about AYC SST, do get in contact with any of the Trustees. We would love to hear from you. We are passionate about ensuring the charity can continue to provide the sailing experience to young people in our community.