The last few years have been a period of dramatic growth and maturity for the Community Sailing Center. We have developed into a vital community resource on Burlington’s waterfront. We have seen an unprecedented number of kids, adults, and families flooding into our camps, classes, and clinics. We have increased the length of our season, widened our partnership circle, and expanded our curriculum from simple sailing lessons to programs that tackle important issues facing the community and teach youth development, environmental education, and team building.

Now, looking towards our seventeenth year, we find ourselves dreaming bigger than we could have ever imagined when we began in 1993.

Extraordinary growth and vision have not included plush surroundings or generous staffing: this has been a dream that constantly pushes the edges, accomplished in minimal conditions. The integrity of our dedicated staff and their commitment to delivering high-quality programs has been essential to our success and rapid growth. And still the hardships imposed by operating in an office and classroom space with no plumbing or even flush toilets have not hampered the reach of the Community Sailing Center.

Currently, all youth programs are operating at a 98% occupancy rate. We are at capacity – the Sailing Center has turned people away due to staff and equipment limitations.

In 2010, the Sailing Center saw:

• 18,000 user visits (63% increase since 2007)
• 463 youth camp participants (72% increase since 2007)
• 6,230 hours of programming
• 40 community partnerships
• 250 Adaptive Watersports program participants (55% increase since 2007)
• 462 LeaderSHIP program participants
• 192 Floating Classroom students

The Community Sailing Center is fiscally solid, with a balanced annual budget (increasing 20% annually since 2007). Grants and contributions provide 30% of our budget, while revenue from boat storage, rental services, summer camps, and education programs comprise the majority of our income.

A new facility on Burlington’s waterfront is the future for the Community Sailing Center, creating an important anchor for the center’s growing programs. First, the Sailing Center will build the organizational capacity that assures program breadth and depth for a true community center and home.

While we are actively pursuing a new facility on the waterfront, the Sailing Center must invest now to increase capacity, to extend reach into the community, and to fulfill our mission of public access and quality educational and recreational programs for the entire community.

Capacity investment is essential to our future. There is an exciting journey ahead.

To embark on that journey, we are Raising Our Sails!

Program Capacity $51,790
The Community Sailing Center integrates education, recreation, health, and wellness by delivering diverse, lake-based programming to all people in the community. Significant demand for programs that develop a greater appreciation and understanding of the lake means we need to:

• Develop Enhanced Curriculum
• Expand WAVES Initiative
• Increase McConnell Scholarship Fund
• Fuel Community Programs
• LeaderSHIP
• Floating Classrooms

Equipment Capacity $130,480
All 50 boats in the fleet are programmed 10+ hours per day, seven days a week for the entire 12-week summer camp season. Each fleet is used in multiple ways in the spring, summer, and fall seasons. On a typical day, we conduct over 40 hours of on-water programming with up to 120 kids, adults, and families using the Sailing Center. With such extensive use of the boats, repairs and maintenance are a continual challenge. Fleet expansion and repairs are vital to our programming and growth. We need to:

• Upgrade Keelboat Fleet
• Replace Adaptive Boat
• Acquire Additional Instruction Boats
• Six Vanguard 420s
• Six Lasers
• Acquire Additional Safety Boats

Organizational Capacity $67,730
The Community Sailing Center has modest staff and infrastructure requirements. Hiring, supporting, and training staff along with technology upgrades and strategic planning are essential to providing the diversity of programming and facilities that accommodate the center’s thousands of annual users. We need to:

• Increase Core Staff
• Develop Constituencies
• Upgrade Technology
• Advance the Organization
• Strategic Visioning Process
• Planning for a New Facility