January 2018

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Welcome to our first newsletter of 2018
A summary on 2017 and looking towards an exciting year ahead!

2017 was a big year for Shadowfax Racing, with the launch of a brand new programme, several fantastic, dedicated new volunteers joining the team and another hugely successful charity ball. We’re now busy preparing for even bigger things in 2018!

Newsletter Contents:

End of season survey
Thank you to our volunteers
Invitation to Ranelagh Sailing Club drinks – Friday 23^rd February
2017 Sailing Round up: Autumn – Portsmouth Programme
2017 Sailing Round up: Summer Programme
The Masquerade Ball: Summary and fundraising results

1. End of season survey

Each year we review our progress and would really appreciate it if you could take 5 minutes to complete our survey to help us improve and develop the Shadowfax Racing Programme and ultimately make the Charity more successful and make a bigger impact on the lives of the young people that sign up to the Programmes.

Complete the survey

2. Thank you to our volunteers!

It’s been brilliant to welcome a number of fantastic new volunteers to Shadowfax Racing this year. We can’t do what we do without the help and commitment of our amazing volunteers, who give up part of their weekends to work with our trainees and share their sailing knowledge and passion. It’s been great to see their enthusiasm for the work we do and they have all helped us to significantly expand and improve our programmes, contributing a wealth of knowledge, experience, support, time and ideas. A huge thank you to all the volunteers who have helped this year including: Hilary Branfield, Lucy Davies, Tiffany Fox, Lizzie Farrington, Alice Wilson, Nick Wadsley, Laura Pragnell, Mel Jacques, Jeff Worboys, Allan Fraser, Alyona Trubitsina, Tara Stone, Max Kenna, Katie Sanderson, Debbie Hunt, Rob Walsh, Iva Brumovska, Pete and Maia Bentley and Emma Harrington.

3. Invitation to Ranelagh Sailing Club drinks – Friday 23^rd February

We are pleased to invite you to the Shadowfax Racing drinks on Friday 23^rd February which will once again be held at Putney Ranelagh Sailing club from 7.00pm. It’s a very social affair with a 5 minute introduction on what we plan to do in 2018 so come along to catch up with your friends, meet the new volunteers and get the benefit of significantly cheaper drinks! We’ll also be selling raffle tickets if you wish to donate to the Charity and have a chance of winning a bottle of rum, amongst other prizes.
Date: Friday 23^rd February
Time: 7pm onwards
Venue: Ranelagh Sailing Club – upstairs
Address: Putney Embankment, London, SW15 1LB

4. New programme launched for Portsmouth area

In addition to our Summer Programme, Shadowfax Racing were thrilled to launch a brand new autumn sailing programme with a tie-in between UKSA and the 1851 Trust, the official charity of British America’s Cup team, Land Rover BAR. The new programme targeted underprivileged 14-16 year olds from Portsmouth and surrounding areas who would otherwise not get the opportunity to learn to sail, despite living in a coastal area. The course ran over 4 Saturdays in September and October with 8 extremely enthusiastic young trainees.

This programme acted as a follow-on course for some of UKSA’s Go Sail participants. The Go Sail programme was developed by UKSA and 1851 Trust to offer 14-16 year olds in the Portsmouth area the chance to experience the thrill of sailing, with a four-day introductory dinghy course.

Shadowfax Racing’s programme gave keen participants an additional opportunity to try their hand at yacht racing.

Huge thanks to Andy Hooper, who ran the UKSA’s Go Sail programme, for all his support and invaluable help promoting the Shadowfax Racing programme to the Go Sail participants.

The lucky 8 selected for the programme were divided into 2 teams and spent 3 Saturdays in Hamble on either Shadowfax or Workout, learning the skills needed to race competitively and building a strong team spirit. For the final day of the programme, the teams returned to their local area of Portsmouth, where they entered a public race run by Portsmouth Sailing Club. Both teams performed brilliantly, maintaining their focus for a 3 hour race and coming first and second in the non handicap class, a fantastic feat after just 4 days of training!

We are keen to continue our collaboration with the 1851 Trust in 2018. Shadowfax Racing was invited to an event at the Trust’s headquarters at LandRover BAR in Portsmouth in November. The event was designed to provide young people in Portsmouth information about sailing opportunities open to them. We were pleased to catch up with several of the young trainees who had completed our programme, who were really keen to do more sailing. We also spoke to several other young people interested in joining our course in 2018. We hope to expand this programme and offer the opportunity to even more young people this year.

Testimonials: The impact we are making ...

“Thank you so much for giving Olly such an amazing experience! He’s enjoyed it lots and wouldn’t have had the opportunity without Shadowfax Racing.” Parent

“The Shadowfax Racing Program has been great for boosting my daughter’ s confidence and self esteem.” Parent

5. Summer 2017 Sailing Programme - Round Up

The Summer Programme was another roaring success with 10 students completing the programme across 5 weekends in June and July. This year the students came from 2 London schools, Evelyn Grace Academy in Brixton and Ark Putney Academy.

We encountered various weather conditions from calm, sunny days to a blustery force 4 with 25 knot gusts, enabling the trainees to experience all the thrills and exhilaration that racing Sigma 33s brings. From the first day it was clear we had a strong competitive ethos in the teams.

This was most evident on day two when both boats claimed to have won the majority of the mini races. We put this down to enthusiasm and self-belief rather than any lack of maths revision!

As the programme progressed, competitive enthusiasm began to combine with racing skill and by the final week, competing in the Royal Southern Regatta, the teams got to see the fruits of all their hard work. It was the satisfaction of overtaking boats with pristine spinnaker hoists and fast tacks that made it all worthwhile. However, it was perhaps the team building exercises that proved most important on race day.

The race itself was very close at the start between Shadowfax and Prospero. The first beat saw a number of position changes as tacking speed proved vital in blustery 15-20 knot conditions.

By the first mark Prospero had a small lead which they consolidated with excellent spinnaker work: a lead they retained until the end!

The end of the programme saw smiling, if a little salt-sprayed, faces with many lessons learnt not just about sailing but also team building, resilience and commitment.

6. Fundraising: End of Season Celebrations!
The Annual Shadowfax Racing Charity Ball took place on Saturday 7th October, once again at the fantastic Royal Thames Yacht Club in Knightsbridge. It was another sell-out event with 170 masked revellers contributing to a fantastic party and celebrating 2017’s super successful programmes.

As well as a chance to get together and celebrate the work done over the year, the ball helps provide important funding to enable us to run our programmes and get more young people out on the water who wouldn’t otherwise get the opportunity. This year the ball and auction raised an unbelievable £14,000 for the charity which will help us to further expand our work in 2018. Thank you so much to everyone who came along to join the fun, donated and bid on our amazing auction and raffle prizes and helped out with event organisation and delivery.