A SKIPPOOL-based sailing club is billowing into the new millennium powered by a £154,000 lottery bonanza.

Blackpool and Fleetwood Yacht Club won the grant from the Sport England Lottery Fund to develop facilities for the disabled and to attract more young people.

Vice-commodore and training officer David Walton said: "We were very pleased to get the grant - it will mean a new era for the club, it's a time for revival." The 400-member club applied for the grant with the help of the Royal Yachting Association's Sailability scheme for the disabled and Wyre sports development officer Nicola Blundell.

It will enable them to create disabled-access to the clubhouse, special changing facilities and adapt boats for disabled sailors. We're also keen to get more young people interested in sailing," said Mr Walton. "We already run weekly training sessions in the summer at Fleetwood's Marine Lake, and we hope to get more youngsters to come and use the club's facilities in Skippool.

"You don't need a boat to become a member, we have club boats that people can use at any time.

"We're also hoping to regain our status with the RYA so that we can issue certificates ourselves, rather than, as at present, going through the Blackpool and Fleetwood Nautical College.

"And we want to extend the use of the clubhouse by community groups - we already have art societies making use of it, and we have had caravan rallies - we're hoping to open the whole thing up to a wider group of people, including school-groups and other water-sports users like power-boaters."

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