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To meet our 2026 funding target enabling sailing days for children, for adults in need, and for rehabilitating Armed Forces personnel.
Our Background. The Boleh Trust operates the unique, classic yacht Boleh, famous for its 1950 ocean voyage from Singapore to Salcombe, Devon, and now based in Gosport, Hants. Boleh's uniqueness is now further enhanced with auxiliary electrical power generated through an innovative electricity generation and battery storage system.
Our Target Beneficiaries. The Trust searches for people of all ages, who need a tonic in their lives, who need to surmount disadvantage or lack of opportunity, or who simply need refreshment and recreation. The Trust takes them to sea, where they grow in confidence through acquiring new skills and disciplines and learning to sail Boleh as a team. We believe that they return to land with enhanced well-being and better placed to face the ups and downs of life.
Our Target Collaborators. Many organisations and charities looking to support people in need cannot themselves afford the full costs of a day- or week-long sail, so the Boleh Trust is reaching out to funders to help make days on the water possible for the people in their care through joint-funding. Life and its opportunities can be transformed by showing young people, in particular, the educational, recreational and employment aspects of the maritime environment.
Our Need for Financial Assistance. Boleh is a Registered National Historic Ship, now coded to meet the Maritime and Coastguard Agency's exacting safety standards. Boleh is crewed and the Trust is administered by volunteers. Your help is sought in funding Boleh's maintenance upkeep, her berthing, her insurance, her administration and her publicity and in ensuring that her crews' professional training standards are kept up and their reasonable expense outlays refunded. This costs up to £75,000 per year.
Our Target. We aim to have delivered 80 days of charitable sailing in 2026. With 2 crew and 6 guests on board each day, we will have benefited up to 480 people, primarily local to Portsmouth, Chichester and Portland. This work continues throughout October; then starts our winter upkeep programme, ready for restart in April 2027, when we aim to deliver 100 charitable sailing days. Your financial support, at whatever level you can manage, will be enormously helpful.
Recent 2026 Testimonials:
From a Special Needs School Teacher: I have just had two great days on board Boleh. The pupils gained so much from the experience, as did staff. Here are some pupil comments form the trip:
James: I loved driving (steer) the ship and putting up the anchor.
Tyler: I learned so much and really enjoyed putting up the sails and learned new skills steering the boat.
Ben: I have been sailing before but this boat was great.
Rhyley: I have enjoyed my day, learned how to put fenders out and steer the ship.
Scarlett: I have not been sailing before but liked to drive the boat (steer)
Harry: The boat was great, learned how to put up the sails. Not so keen on steering.
Keiren: I Have learned a lot from the skipper today really enjoyed steering the ship.
Our pupils have grown in confidence, learned new skills and shown team work in the past two days on board. Thank you again for the opportunity.
From a Military Organisation safeguarding the mental health of its ex-service personnel: The intensity, exposure and nature of the violence suffered by servicemen can often manifest as complex PTSD after service. Consequently, there is a scientifically proven need to reflect and recalibrate more frequently than in any other community in the UK. The Boleh Trust offers far more than time on the water; it offers a way forward. Out at sea, veterans are given space to breathe, focus on the moment and regain a sense of control, purpose and confidence. Rekindling the importance of mutual respect and camaraderie, alongside the need to collaborate and talk, is a fundamental foundation for recovery and a key difference that separates the Boleh Trust from other veteran sailing activities. Every encounter is delivered with compassion and paced with a detailed understanding of the traumas carried by our beneficiaries.
Your support for the Boleh Trust will enable us to bring this experience to more of the most seriously affected veterans who need it, helping them reconnect, rebuild and discover a way forward towards recovery. Thank you for considering us!
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 4th January 2027 at 3:09pm