13 brilliant ways yachts are used for charity

Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust adds Scottish yacht

The charity helps children with mobility issues get on the water

In August 2016, the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust revealed that is has used a grant from the People’s Postcode Lottery to buy a new 13.94 metre Bénéteau Oceanis 45 sailing yacht.

The charity helps children with mobility issues caused by cancer to get on the water and the new yacht, based in the Scottish town of Largs, will be crucial in this as it features a lowering transom for ease of access. Frank Fletcher, chief executive of the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust, said, “This new yacht will allow us to provide a better experience for our young people with mobility issues from Northern England and Scotland.”

Xavi Hernández donated his yacht to help save refugees

Auction will raise funds for Proactivia Open Arms

In July 2016, the former Barcelona and Spain footballer Xavi Hernández donated his yacht La Pelopina to the non-governmental organisation Proactivia Open Arms. The yacht will be auctioned off to raise funds for the organisation, which was set up to help save the lives of refugees attempting to cross the Mediterranean.

Spanish organisation Proactivia Open Arms is currently based on the Greek island of Lesbos, which received more than 55,000 refugees in the first six months of the year. The organisation has raised more than €500,000 since the beginning of 2016 to help tackle the Mediterranean refugee crisis.

Six celebrities fundraise during a circumnavigation of the UK

As part of Sport Relief

In March 2016, six British celebrities circumnavigated the UK in five days in a bid to raise money for charity. The BT Sport Relief Challenge: Hell on High Seas yacht was skippered by Volvo Ocean Race sailor Ian Walker.

TV presenters Alex Jones, Angelica Bell, Ore Oduba, Suzi Perry, comedian Hal Cruttenden and actress Doon Mackichan are sailed from Belfast Harbour, down the west coast of the UK, through the Solent and up to North Shields.

The stunt was part of the Sport Relief weekend, which aims to get people active and raise money for charities through exercise.

Yachtsman donates boat for refugees

In October 2015, a yachtsman from Jersey gave up his sailing dreams and donated his £25,000 yacht to a Channel Island charity set up to support refugees and migrants in the port of Calais in northern France.

Michael de Petrovsky was so moved by the plight of people living in the makeshift camp known as ‘the Jungle’ when he visited that he donated his seven-berth yacht to the Jersey Calais Refugee Aid Group. The group was set up by history teacher Bram Wanrooij, who saw the camp while returning from a family holiday.

Yachtsman Mr de Petrovsky travelled to Calais with crews of construction and aid workers from Jersey to help build emergency shelters for the migrants and refugees. His boat was entered into a raffle to raise money to build more shelters to help protect people who are based there over the coming winter months.

Mr de Petrovsky’s yacht, Contango, is well known in local sailing circles and has competed in the Commodore’s Cup at the Royal Channel Islands Yacht Club.

Ghazi Najib, who has played an integral role in organising aid trips to Calais in recent weeks, said that he had been overwhelmed by Mr de Petrovsky’s generosity. He said that the donation would help him achieve his goal of buying 45 emergency shelters for the ‘Jungle’ at a cost £1,400 each. He said that each shelter can house up to 20 people.

Mr Najib said: “Michael called me and said he knew I was trying to raise the money and said his yacht had been for sale for eight months. He just gave it to me, put it in my name and said ‘do something good’.”

Picture courtesy of the Jersey Evening Post

SailFuture rehabilitates at-risk youth through sailing

Sail For Justice will take juveniles offenders on the ARC

The Sarasota, Florida-based charity SailFuture rehabilitates kids by taking them out of the juvenile penitentiary system and putting them onto sailing yachts. So far, the organisation has transformed more than 150 lives, working with advocacy groups, judges and attorneys to get high-risk youths out onto the water instead of locked up behind bars.

In 2015, five juvenile offenders sailed in the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers as part of the charity's Sail For Justice program. The five young men – who had never stepped on a boat before –  were put through an Olympic style training course before sailing 2,700 nautical miles from the Canary Islands to St. Lucia.

Founder of SailFuture, Michael Long, said the program's goal is to use sailing to demonstrate there are "more effective and cost-efficient ways to rehabilitate at-risk youths than sending them into a broken juvenile justice system that fails more kids than it saves."

"Sailing is the basis of everything we do. Through it, we teach responsibility, inspire confidence and build the foundation of lifelong friendships," Long added.

Sir Richard Branson's yacht comes to the rescue

YachtAid Global and _Necker Belle_ delivered supplies to storm ravaged islands

Yachting charity YachtAid Global were able to get assistance from Sir Richard Branson's yacht Necker Belle and deliver aid to St Maarten following Hurricane Gonzalo in 2014, which caused nearly 40 boats to sink and severely damaged the Caribbean island.

YachtAid Global often looks for help from "like-minded captains and owners" for its humanitarian efforts around the world, tasking them with delivering supplies to places devastated by natural disasters that are often best reached by superyachts.

The organisation put out another request for help after Hurricane Joaquin ripped through parts of The Bahamas in October 2015, calling on yachts in South Florida and those passing through The Bahamas to deliver disaster relief to areas affected by the storm.

Beautiful classic yachts race for charity

Marquita and Eleonora raise £67,000 for Wetwheels disabled powerboat

There is no better sight than that of two beautiful classic sailing yachts battling it out on the water. Unless, perhaps, it's for a noble cause. In 2015, the 104 year old, 38 metre classic yacht Mariquita arranged a match race against the equally iconic 49.5 metre Eleonora and raised a whopping £67,000 for the disabled charity Wetwheels. The money was earned by auctioning off places on board the yachts during the regattas, with the 25 top bidders earning a spot on board.

Wetwheels gives disabled and disadvantaged people the chance to get on the water on board accessible yachts. The funds raised went to helping the Hamble-based charity buy their third boat, a new motorised catamaran that will based at the Royal Southern Yacht Club.

Dragonfly brings doctors to those in need

_Dragonfly_ transports medical aid to cyclone ravaged South Pacific

When Cyclone Pam tore through the island nation of Vanuatu in the South Pacific last year, the 73 metre Silver Yachts Dragonfly was there to help. In just one of the ways that yachts could help the cyclone-ravaged region, Dragonfly was quick to respond by transporting medical aid and doctors to the remote areas that were in dire need of care.

It helped that some of the crew were medically trained as well. A stewardess on board Dragonfly is a doctor, the yacht's captain Mike Gregory said, and five more of the crew were trained medical technicians. Between this and a shoreside security team and ex-Navy seals joining the mission, the locals were in good hands as this superyacht came to the rescue.

Yachts race to raise money for kids

Nord Stream sailors race in aid of World Childhood Foundation

The organisers of the 2015 Nord Stream Race, the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein and Saint Petersburg Yacht Club, invited the crews competing to do so for a good cause. Crews could participate in a Childhood Charity Race, of which proceeds would be donated to the World Childhood Foundation. All winners donated their prize money of €3,000 to the World Childhood Foundation, making the kids the real winners of this yacht race.

"We are very happy to be able to support the World Childhood Foundation in this way as they are doing tremendous work for the benefit of the children all over the globe. I know that the initiator of the foundation, Queen Sylvia of Sweden, is very interested in sailing and is appreciating the commitment of the sailors”, said Alexander Prinz zu Schleswig-Holstein, a representative of Norddeutscher Regatta Verein.

Classic yacht replica built for charity

The _Britannia_ will sail again and be donated to charities

The K1 Britannia Trust, which has charitable status in the US and UK, are busy building a replica of the Royal yacht HMY Britannia with the aim to gift her to charities when completed. The gaff-rigged cutter was launched in 1893, originally built for the Prince of Wales, Commodore Albert Edward, later to be known as King Edward VII. The Britannia, pictured above in the centre of the photo shot in the 1930s, went on to serve his son King George V, until she was ordered to be scuttled by the Royal Navy in 1936.

The replica of Britannia was commissioned in Russia in 1994 and shipped to Norway in 2009. The K1 Britannia Trust acquired her in 2011, "for the purpose of completing her rebuild so that she could be deployed as a flag ship for a whole range of charitable activities and projects around the world."

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