With help from Sports England, a yacht club has been able to purchase a new RIB as a safety boat to help with its growing membership.

Dartmouth Yacht Club, a Community Amateur Sports Club (CASC) has purchased the new vessel after applying for a Sport England Small Grant Fund.

The fund enabled the club to buy the safety boat and also a dingy road trailer. The RIB was handed over to the yacht club from Ribeye Ltd on Tuesday, July 24.

Other parties including county and district councillor, Jonathan Hawkins; the DHNA Harbour Master, Mark Cooper and Ribeye supported the club’s Sport England application.

Kate Brown, the Commodore said she was very pleased that Dartmouth Yacht Club was able to purchase a high quality RIB which will be able to provide the ideal safety boat cover needed for the community junior sailing squad.

An influencing factor for the purchase of this RIB was the growth of the club over the last three years, which expanded from 450 members in 2015 to 1,100 members last year, most of whom live locally.

The club realised that to keep all members satisfied it would need to increase its capacity by buying more toppers and a second cover boat.

Thus, Christine Phillips, led the application to Sport England and helped to secure the funding.

The club as a CASC is committed to supporting adults and children to get out and use the river, regardless of income.

A spokesman for the club explained fees are kept low to make access to the River Dart affordable and all profit made is re-invested into the water activities.

In addition, trained members can use the dinghies and kayaks for free and the motor boats for a moderate charge.