Changing
lives through
sailing.
For over 50 years, Enterprise Sailing has given inner-city children the chance to discover confidence, teamwork and joy on the Norfolk Broads. Many have never been on holiday before.
Why we go sailing.
UK children are the least happy at school of any country in Europe. Life satisfaction at 15 is the lowest of all twenty-seven countries surveyed, and 42% have never been on a family holiday.
We find them at twelve or thirteen (often anxious, often nearly lost to school) and we put them on a boat for a week with volunteer skippers, mixed crews and teachers from their own school. They come back different. Teachers tell us so. Parents tell us so. And, in their own words, the children tell us so.
The children tell it best.
Every year, twelve-to-fourteen year-olds from four very different schools live aboard mixed crews on the Broads. These are three of them.
I made many friends from being a nervous boy to a confident boy. It was truly an adventure… I would like to go there again.
Everyone there was very welcoming and I felt like I was really part of the group.
The boat trip was one of the best experiences of my life. I made new friends and did things I have never done before.
A week on the water, designed to change a life.
We work with schools and youth groups to identify 12–14 year-olds at risk of disengaging or under-achieving. Through residential weeks on the Norfolk Broads and dinghy sailing closer to home, we build confidence, develop social skills, and grow young leaders.
Four schools, one boat.
Eight children from each of four very different schools live together aboard mixed crews, learning to work with others they'd never otherwise meet.
Quiet courage, learned on deck.
Sailing demands teamwork and patience. The skills don't stay on the water. They come back to the classroom, the family, the friendships.
Skippers who know young people.
Our skippers are all unpaid: passionate about sailing, even more skilled with young people. A teacher always comes along to carry the week back into school.
A week of sailing uncovers great qualities in a youngster that can change the way they are understood back in school. Every year, parents and teachers tell us of children transformed.
Postcards from the Broads.
Photographs from our summer weeks, and what the children took home, in their own words. Traditional wooden half-deckers, mixed crews, and a stretch of Norfolk water that most had never seen before.
£500 sends one child sailing.
Every pound goes directly to a child's place on the water: food, boat hire, fuel, safety kit, and the small comforts that make a nervous 12-year-old feel welcome. Our weeks are run entirely by volunteers.
