Support our sailing
The GCA Sailing programme is unique. No other school comes close, on the water! In 2023, we are taking 250 inner city students sailing, from beginners on the local reservoir, to competitive Solent & national racing and even a squad to the Etchells World Championships.
Latest coverage
- Aug 23: wonderful feature on our story in The Daily Mail. Our Cowes Week success was also big news in The Telegraph and the official Olympics website.
- Dec 22: The Times ran a great feature, and Jon & students were live on ITV This Morning.
The programme costs £200,000 per year. Thank you to every donor who got us over the line for our February appeal: You secured Scaramouche & our base plans for the year. We are incredibly grateful.
Please help us raise the next £50,000!
We are working to do even more, including overnight trips on Scaramouche. These are the bridge from early training in dinghies to serious offshore sailing & racing.
We also need to look ahead to funding the next school year’s activities, from September. Every contribution helps, of any amount.
2023 Sailing programme
- We’ll get 100 beginners out for overnight voyages on the Solent, learning about yacht sailing & themselves. (£300 pays for one student)
- We’ll also be training & working hard on and the race course. This year’s programme includes the world famous Round The Island race, Cowes Week and plenty more. (£1,000 covers a year’s campaign for one student)
- We’ll take 80 students out on our local reservoir, with regular weekly trips. The most committed 30 will go on train at the National Sailing Academy in Weymouth. (£300 pays for one student for the whole year)
- See below for our elite ILCA (laser) squad.
- Others will get their early experience on Ocean Youth Trust’s 5-day adventures. (£500 gets one student on board)
- Riot – 22ft Mini-tonner
- Eros – 22ft E-Boat Mini-tonner
- If – Limbo 7.7m Mini-tonner
- Cote – 26ft Quarter-tonner
- Etchells
- ILCA (Lasers)
Value for money
We squeeze the best value out of every penny we receive:
- Students maintain (and restore!) our boats, wherever practical
- Staff volunteer
- Administrative overheads are an absolute minimum
Your generous donations pay for everything from travel and accommodation at sailing events, to coaching, maintenance and fuel.
We believe that this year’s average cost of £800/student for the full year’s programme is exceptional value for money.
And if you’re a UK tax payer, we can reclaim an extra 25% of Gift Aid on every donation.
Talk to us
Some people and organisations get much more involved by sponsoring whole racing squads, or making gifts of anything from £1,000 to £50,000. These major partners provide crucial security for planning and organising our operation.
Please contact us to discuss how you can get involved, including joint publicity, prominent branding & getting out on the water with our sailors.
** Stop Press ** We’re also looking now for a new headline sponsor for our iconic flagship, Scaramouche!