WEYMOUTH Sailing Club will get a new training room thanks to a funding boost of nearly £50,000 from the National Lottery.

The club received a grant of £48,354 to help finance its ‘Longshed training room’ project after making the application to Sport England.

Sport England has awarded grants totaling £17million to community groups and causes as part of its Inspired Facilities fund to help improve sports facilities at grassroots level.

The grant will allow the sailing club to modify its boat maintenance and storage area, and the refurbishment of the area will see half of the Longshed earmarked for boat maintenance, with the other half used as a social training area.

The grant will also allow the club to install additional office space, which the club has said will be available to use for the local community.

Commodore Kathy Claydon said: “Since the Olympics when Weymouth Sailing Club acted as hosts to team GB and their families who were using the long shed, we realised that with money this underused part of the club could be utilised as a multifunctional area for training, boat maintenance, meetings and a social area, not just for Weymouth Sailing Club but for the local community.

“I must highlight the support we have received from Weymouth Rowing Club, the Yacht Clubs of Weymouth and Weymouth Lifeboat among others in attaining this grant and thank them.”

Charles Johnston, Sport England property director, said: “The inspired facilities fund has a huge impact on grassroots sport across the country.

“Since 2011, we have invested £88 million into more than 1,600 projects to improve and refurbish sports clubs and transform non-sporting venues into vibrant community sports clubs.

“It’s great to see Weymouth Sailing Club join the long list of successful clubs to benefit from this fund.”

The next round of the Inspired Facilities fund is now open so more communities can benefit from the fund.

Community and voluntary organisations, councils and schools can bid for a share of a further £20 million which has been made available to help upgrade facilities suitable for grassroots sport.

For information visit sportengland.org/inspiredfacilities