UKSA announced as Yachts and Yachting Charity of the Year in new partnership to benefit young people
by UKSA 17 Jan 2018 06:33 UTC

UKSA has been chosen as the Yachts and Yachting Charity of the Year for 2018 © UKSA
UKSA was chosen as the Yachts and Yachting Charity of the Year for 2018 at the London Boat Show on Thursday, 11th January 2018.
UKSA is a national charity that uses sailing and watersports as a catalyst to transform people's lives. This year, Yachts and Yachting will be actively promoting the charity to its readers as part of a new partnership to benefit young people.
Yachts and Yachting is the leading performance sailing magazine, covering every aspect of the racing scene, from dinghies to keelboats. Each year the magazine chooses a charity to support and promote. This year Editor Georgie Corlett-Pitt chose to support UKSA:
"The team at Yachts and Yachting is committed to supporting more young people entering the sport. Working with UKSA this year will not only help more children benefit from sailing and water sports, but will also mean Yachts and Yachting readers can benefit from the in-house expertise at UKSA throughout the year".
The charity partnership is focused on raising funds for a new residential watersports programme - Opportunities Afloat – funding and subsidising school children who would normally never have the chance to visit UKSA. These programmes at UKSA are designed to develop life skills such as communication, participation and self-belief.
Opportunities Afloat received its first donation on Thursday, as the British Marine Trades Association – organisers of the London Boat Show - chose to make a £400 donation to the fund.
Ben Willows, UKSA CEO, said: "We are delighted to be Yachts and Yachting Charity of the Year, and so grateful to the team for choosing us to partner with them. Most importantly this partnership will allow us to directly benefit more young people. I'm so glad that people and organisations – like British Marine Trades Association – are getting behind the campaign already."
Of the 10,000 people on UKSA's training courses annually, over a third are part of a funded programme.
For more information on the programmes available at UKSA, please visit uksa.org/schools-and-groups