Get Donaghadee Sailing again!

Aim

Get our community back out enjoying 'our Big Blue gym', out on or in the water with Sailing, Sup, and Snorkelling & Diving @DSC!

Donaghadee Sailing Club

Situated on Donaghadee’s famous seafront with views of the iconic lighthouse and the Copeland Islands, our beautiful Clubhouse is the base for all of our sailing, racing, training, diving, community activities and social events.

We are an RYA accredited training centre, newly accredited RYA Onboard centre  and have an active training and social calendar throughout the year for both members and non-members, a true 'grass roots' & not for profit, CASC registered club, getting people introduced to the sport. 

The club also offers opportunities for SUP (Stand Up Paddle Boarding) with our own in house accredited ISA & BSUPA instructors.

DSC is a BASC Registered Club and Dive Centre with our own integrated Dive section - 'The Duck Down Divers'

DSC welcomes all new members, we're a cross community, all abilities  club and a valuable resource for the people of Donaghadee – we endeavour to remove the barrier of affordability to allow everyone to get into sport of sailing, sup, diving and powerboating, and are firmly grounded as a family orientated club.  You don’t need to have your own equipment to join. All our members (juniors and adults) have access to Club boats and equipment and are fully insured to use them when competently trained. 

Whether you are a Sailor, Powerboater, Diver, Paddle boarder, or just want to get involved out on the water, young or not so young, the club has something for you!

Community impact

The sailing Club not only provides a sporting facility for the benefit of its' members, but offers a range of services to community based groups and charities from the local North Down and greater Belfast areas. These include hosting events, historical talks, coffee mornings, fundraising events, team building events, WOW (Women on water) water sports taster days and  offering RYA training for First Aid, Sailing and Powerboating to our local young people and adults, from Community based clubs and groups, scouts, the local primary schools,  integrated secondary schools, and the general community. We regularly host sailing competitions for young people and adults from across the island of Ireland.  We're firmly embedded as part in the fabric of the town, and have recently celebrated our 50th year.  

Why are we crowdfunding?

The sailing club and our training programs for all water the Sports we offer have been both  financially and physically devastated by the pandemic. The club lost 2 years of being able to offer training to hundreds of young people and adults from amongst our local community.  

Our Project- ‘The Blue Gym’

Through Covid 19 our   club has lost a significant number of skilled & experienced volunteers and trained instructors and members during the pandemic.

In order to build back better we  want to develop a ‘blue gym’ at Donaghadee and implement a RAFT of water based activities to get the community back in,  on and under the water.

We want to develop our new RYA On Board accredited  Bright Night Sailing programme as well as offering new and old members the chance to try other  new water based activities such as stand up paddle boarding and scuba diving.

 Your support is key as we need to upgrade our training fleet and equipment, and put in place a intensive training program to replace those skills lost. We are going to focus on helping  our up and coming juniors and adult volunteer instructors to help them   gain an accredited RYA, BSAC and BSUPA qualifications to continue to offer the professional level of service and training to our local community, and improve the teaching experience .

We feel by developing a suite of new water based activities will help us attract back new members and volunteers which are key to our club.

This program would allow DSC to get our 'New' RYA OnBoard accredited / Bright Night Sailing scheme up and running properly, and to be able to offer sailing and a diverse range of water activities once again for all abilities.

How you can play your part

There are four simple ways to help us reach our target, and make this project a reality.

1. Make a pledge. Don’t delay if you’re going to support us because momentum is key to our success!

2. Spread the word. Share our project on your social media pages and tell the world to get behind us! The more people we reach, the more support we will get.

3. Offer rewards. Get involved if you are a local business by donating things we can offer to our supporters. We will give you a shout out!

4. Create a fundraiser of your own. Use the button on our page to get started. Setting up your own page only takes a few minutes and you won’t need any bank details. Just a fun idea!

This project successfully funded on 30th June 2022