ARDEN Sailing Club's long wait to build a new boathouse is nearly over.

For five years the community club has been fund-raising towards a permanent store for its fleet on the banks of the river Avon.

Now, thanks to a £7,000 Wychavon District Council grant, that dream looks set to become a reality.

Club treasurer Keith Stevens said: "We've put the foundations in and we hope to complete it within the next two to three months.

"But although we do have bricklayers that we employ, a lot of our own labour has to go into it. We have to do all the labouring, cement-mixing and probably put the roof on ourselves so a lot of activity has to go in.

"We are not just a sailing club, we're a building club as well at the moment."

Arden moved downstream to their current idyllic Defford headquarters in 2000 and operated out of a disused caravan for two years until their £65,000 clubhouse was built through a combination of self-funding and grants.

Although their budget did not stretch to a boathouse, the aim to continue fund-raising and one day begin construction remained.

Stevens said: "We had to move to the present site and build a new clubhouse from scratch.

"We managed to get the funds together, to a large extent thanks to Wychavon District Council who provided us initially with a grant of £10,000, and that went a long towards getting us started.

"We were also fortunate to get funding from the Foundation for Sports and the Arts because the lottery turned us down."

He added: "We are very fortunate in that Wychavon this very week have just given us a cheque for £7,000, which is a community grant, to help us finish the project which was to build the boat store.

"It will give us the capability to store our safety boats very "It's something that all the family can do from nine to 90 and you can be competitive through that period as well."

securely and also to work on club boats.

"We have seven club boats which are for use of members and it will enable us to maintain those in a nice dry boatshed, which at the moment we can't."

With that goal in sight the club is stepping up its efforts to attract more members.

To this end an open day has been organised for Sunday, June 17, from 11am to 4pm for anyone to try the sport.

Stevens said: "I'm very passionate about sailing, being an instructor and having done it for some years, and I just like other people to enjoy it as well.

"I think it's a much under-rated sport.

"It's something that all the family can do from nine to 90 and you can be competitive through that period as well - there's not many sports where you can say that."

He added: "In a good breeze, when the boat is really flying along it's very exhillerating, it's very exciting.

"If you've got all the worries of work all week, to come out on a weekend and sail in a good breeze - you have to concentrate on what you're doing and it's a really good stress reliever. It's absolutely brilliant."

The club, a Royal Yachting Association Training Centre, also stages races and is running a course for beginners for three Saturdays from June 30.

For more details on the club, contact Keith Stevens on 01684-833061.