Eric Twiname Trust approaching remarkable milestone

by Matt Carter on 6 Mar 2014 The Eric Twiname Trust, a charity foundation set up in honour of the late Eric Twiname is about to reach a remarkable milestone by the end of this year – the provision of funding totalling £1m to youth sailing projects in the United Kingdom since the Trust's formation in 1980.

The Eric Twiname Trust, which was set up in order to perpetuate Eric’s memory and to enable his many and diverse sailing interests to continue, handed over the 30th Yamaha-powered Eric Twiname RIB allocated to the Techno UK Windsurfing Class Association at the RYA Suzuki Dinghy Show on Saturday (1 March).

As a registered charity, the Eric Twiname Trust has a mandate to support competitive sailing for young people, including the encouragement of clubs to establish junior fleets and junior race-training programmes, and by so doing has helped a large number of youngsters on to the water for more than 24 years.

To that effect it provides grants for sailing events and equipment, and in particular dinghies for club youth race training. The aim is to spread the Trust’s funds across as wide a spectrum of youth sailing as possible and to achieve that, support is focussed on sailing clubs and associations.

By the end of 2014, over 30 RIBs, and 230 boats and windsurf boards will have been provided since 1980, with 150 of this impressive total compromising RS Teras for which the cost to clubs of purchasing small fleets is subsidised by the Trust and discounted by the manufacturer.

The Trust also currently funds the on-going provision and insurance of support RIBs for most of the RYA pathway, supported and recognised junior and youth classes. The Trust has done so since 1993, when the first craft powered by Yamaha was handed to the 420 Class Association, since then the Trust has assisted eleven different youth and classes, with some of them receiving their third ET Trust provided RIB recently.

The RYA Eric Twiname Championships, held annually at Rutland Sailing Club, is the premier national event for RYA Zone and home country junior teams in the UK, with over 270 sailors competing. In 2014 the event will be held for the 28th consecutive year, while the RYA Eric Twiname Youth and Junior Team Racing Championships will be held for the 13th consecutive year at Oxford Sailing Club which welcomes up to 50 teams from clubs and schools.

Duncan Truswell, RYA Youth Racing Manager and Eric Twiname Trust trustee, said: 'The RYA and the BIC Techno Class Association UK were very pleased to take delivery of the latest XS 5.0M RIB, complete with trailer and 50HP Yamaha engine this weekend. It is an impressive milestone and both the RYA and the Trust are grateful for the long-standing support of the suppliers Barnet Marine and Yamaha motor UK whose products have demonstrated unwavering reliability and quality.

'The sport of sailing has benefitted for many years from the support of the Eric Twiname Trust and this has enabled a great number of young sailors to get afloat and progress their skills and develop a lifetime passion for sailing. Historically it was really hard for clubs and associations to raise capital to purchase the equipment which is vital to underpin the scale of their activity and also to ensure activity is delivered safely and to a high standard. We are extremely grateful for the on-going support of the Trust and look forward to continuing our association to provide the support and resources clubs and class associations needs to provision for the next generation of young sailors.'

All donations, whether from individuals or from organisations, are warmly welcomed by the Trust. To make a donation click here.

For further details on the Eric Twiname Trust click here.

For more information on the RYA Racing Events please visit the event website.