Newbiggin by the Sea Sailing Club

Newbiggin by the Sea, Northumberland, NE64 6EG

About Us

The Club

Newbiggin by the Sea Sailing club was formed in 1961. It started with a group of like minded people with an interest in dinghy sailing and quickly established a reputation for providing quality events with participants traveling from all over the country.

The club originally operated without its own premises, however 20 years ago it acquired and took on responsibility for renovation of a major building in Newbiggin by the Sea which had fallen derelict. With tremendous effort by the members of the club, the building has been turned into our present clubhouse.

Sailing at Newbiggin continued to thrive through the 80's and 90's with the sons, daughters and grandchildren of the founder members continuing to take part in the activities of the Club. Open meetings continued to be held attracting participants from the Region and Nationally with the Annual Winter Open a highlight of the sailing calendar.

We have recently recognised a decline in youngsters taking up the sport and leading to an aging membership. We have therefore embarked on a significant programme to upgrade our facilities so we can attract youngsters into the sport by 'taster sessions', partnerships with local schools and youth organisations. To this end the Club now own a number of dinghies and appropriate equipment so such sessions can be held with minimum cost to the participant.

The layout of the building did present some constraints, occupying four floors with steep stairs and no ground floor accommodation. Recently however, we were awarded a £400,000 grant by the Coalfields Regeneration Trust to improve the infrastructure with new ground floor facilities and a lift.Work started in December 2003 and after some inevitable but frustrating delays, is due to be completed late summer.

In parallel with improving the building and equipment, we are also in the process of encouraging members to seek training qualifications and to this end, six members recently qualified as RYA Instructors with two going on to add RYA Club Racing Coach to their qualifications.

In December 2004 the club was successful in obtaining funding from Sport England (Active England Fund), Northern Rock Foundation and Wansbeck District Council to help with its 5 year development plan. Specifically the grants will allow the club to employ full time for 3 years, a Sports Development Officer (water based). This professional post will be based in the refurbished club premises and be managed by Wansbeck District Council. It will provide much needed professional support to the development committee and ensure development of the club's full potential in providing water sports facilities, training and healthy exercise to the local community. The club hopes to appoint an exceptional candidate before the end of April 2005

Club Constitution

Newbiggin by the Sea Sailing Club is a not for profit organisation governed by constitution. A copy of the constitution in PDF format can be viewed here (right click to download a copy).

The Website

This website is part of our initiative to attract youngsters into sailing, We need to use and be seen to use the technology that youngsters use in their everyday lives. Our presence on the Internet allows us to advertise our sport and keep those interested up to date with developments and activities at the Club by means of mailing lists, activity calendars and of course the details held on this site.

Privacy

The privacy of our members and visitors to our Web Site is important. We do not use cookies to track visitors to our website, though cookies are used within the Discussion Groups to notify you of new messages and track your place in the discussion whilst logged into that facility.We do not hold personal membership information on the Internet site and any details that are supplied to the Club are held only as necessary for the purpose they were supplied.

If you have any queries relating to this site, please email them to webmaster@newbigginsailingclub.org