A roof over our heads

In his contribution about sailing clubs, Malta Sailing Clubs Federation vice-president Paul Ellul raised the spectre of two other sailing clubs ending up without premises.

One of those clubs is Vikings Sailing Club, which has been at Haywharf since 1984.

While we fully sympathise with the plight of the Royal Malta Yacht Club, our priority is, of course, to ensure our own future.

The club has quite a different ethos to the RMYC. Most of its activities are aimed at dinghy sailors and we organise courses every year for both adults and youngsters as well as on behalf of the Education Division (Skolasport and Skolasajf). Many of these sailors go on to take up yachting as a sport and we are proud to see several of them given crew places on the "big boats" in RMYC races.

Many of the 200-plus members of VSC have family-oriented cruising boats of their own and there is a growing turnout for our own races and cruises. Most of the boats are around the 35-foot mark and, although few could be described as racing boats, they are nonetheless sailed with great enthusiasm.

The club organises fundraising events every year and has so far raised thousands of liri for various causes, the most recent being the children's ward at St Luke's Hospital and the Sliema Creche.

We are a safe haven for hundreds of children who come to the club every day in summer.

The committee runs the club, organises the courses, serves drinks and organises social events, all on a voluntary basis, getting back only the satisfaction of seeing a vibrant club, used as a base for lectures, games, socialising, throughout the year. Scores of families attend functions like New Year's Eve parties and fancy dress sailing events. The club is open on Friday nights for club members and guests and on Sunday we introduced afternoon sessions for those who wished to share a cup of tea, a piece of cake and a game of Scrabble or darts.

In summer, the children sail for a few hours and are then treated to a plate of pasta by the energetic instructors.

The plans we have drawn up include dormitories for student sail exchanges, which have already been very successful in the past.

The club, as a non-profit making organisation, ploughs all its money back into the premises and equipment.

And herein lies the problem. The club has grown considerably, both in membership and equipment (it recently added eight dinghies to its fleet of 15).

At present we use buildings at the former Nautical Institute in Haywharf but the area is not secure and vandalism and theft are a constant problem as there is not enough storage space. There are no proper sanitary facilities and the rooms used as an office are mouldy and damp in spite of our best efforts to maintain them.

So what are we asking for? Money? No, the problem with not having title is that you cannot invest in improvement. By asking for title to the premises all we are doing is ensuring that our investment is protected and will benefit our members for many years to come.