Cowes Sailability Club has been awarded more than £2,500 of National Lottery funding by Sport England, to help it through the current COVID-19 crisis and enable it to emerge afterwards with the capacity to thrive again in the future. 

In total £2,563 of National Lottery funding has been awarded to Cowes Sailability Club from Sport England’s Community Emergency Fund, which will be used to help the club cover the storage and other essential running costs for its boats during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The outbreak of the virus and the consequent shutdown of businesses, as of March 23, has left the sport and physical activity sector facing a period of uncertainty.  In response, on March 31, Sport England announced a £195m package to help the sport and physical activity sector through COVID-19.  Within the package is a £20m Community Emergency Fund of National Lottery money to deliver immediate funding to those who have a role in supporting the nation to be active but are experiencing short-term financial hardship or the ceasing of operations due to the impact of coronavirus.

“The COVID-19 crisis has not only put a stop to our sailing and boating activities; it has also reduced our financial income from new and existing members, cancelled fundraising events and made it much harder for us to attract the funding and grants that we depend on to survive,” says Trish Rooke, Fundraising Officer at Cowes Sailability Club.  “We are extremely grateful to Sport England for this grant from the Community Emergency Fund, which will help us to cover our operational costs, until we can resume our usual activities.” 

Tim Hollingsworth, Sport England’s Chief Executive, said: “As the body responsible for the growth of sport and physical activity participation, we want the vital grassroots organisations that make sport and physical activity happen in this country to not just to come through this crisis but to be in a position to thrive again in the future. The £20m Community Emergency fund, made possible by National Lottery players is part of a multimillion pound package of support we are providing to ease the pressure on a huge number of the organisations who are central to the nation’s health and wellbeing.  We are proud to be able to provide vital funding to Cowes Sailability Club to help it through these extremely challenging times.”