As we remember the life of HRH Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh and many of us try to find an appropriate way of honouring his memory and the contribution that he made to the life of our nation, it has been suggested that people may wish to make a contribution to charity, rather than buying flowers or signing books of condolence.

As a locally-based charity that endeavours to help young, disadvantaged or disabled people to experience the thrills of sailing and watersports can I suggest that The Chesil Sailing Trust might be an appropriate charity to support with such a donation?

Since our formation at the turn of the century we have enabled over 25,000 young people to have their first experience of sailing or windsurfing through our ‘Rod Shipley Sail for a Fiver and Windsurf for a Fiver’ schemes. We currently enable over 2,500 young people to have this experience each year.

We also enable teenagers to experience day sails on a historic yacht or longer voyages where they learn the importance of teamwork and develop self-esteem, self-confidence and self-reliance.

Although this activity was severely restricted last year as a result of the pandemic, we are hoping that as the current restrictions are lifted, we will be able to return to a near normal level of activity this year. To achieve all of these activities and support these life changing opportunities for young people we need to raise between £30,000 and £35,000 each year.

We were honoured that Her Majesty The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh saw these programmes in action on their visit to Weymouth and Portland in June, 2009 (and the Duke made some of his characteristic amusing remarks).

If you feel that you would like to honour the memory of the Duke of Edinburgh with a contribution to this activity you can do so by a bank transfer to The Chesil Sailing Trust, Sort Code 60 07 01, Account Number 40424944 or by visiting our website https://chesiltrust.org.uk/ All contributions will be very gratefully received.

JOHN TWEED

Chairman Chesil Sailing Trust