Bellingham Sailing Foundation Inc

Over twelve years ago we created the Bellingham Sailing Foundation with the ultimate goal of providing infrastructure to facilitate launching and retrieving small sailboats for Bellingham's Youth Sailing Programs. We got permission from the Port of Bellingham and we permitted and installed floats for the storage, launching and retrieval of the small boats at Zuanich Park. It has been successful in providing the program with a place to operate, grow and get more of Bellingham's youth onto the bay.

1) Hundreds of kids have used the facility and it continues to grow. With the addition of high school sailing teams and annual regattas the programs continue to grow in popularity.

This launch ramp will improve accessibility to the water for the Youth Sailing Program. Additionally, it will be available for the general public to launch personal kayaks, paddleboards and other small watercraft from Zuanich Park. This ramp will also be utilized by one of Bellingham's most unique and exciting events: the annual Ski to Sea relay race which currently uses the Sailing Foundation docks as the beginning of the final kayak leg. If we are successful at funding and installing the launch ramp it will be a significant improvement to the kayak launching portion of the Ski to Sea race.

2) It will also take pressure off of the power boat ramp and improve safety for the small sailboats and any human powered watercraft. The photo above shows our Youth Sailors launching their sailing dinghies at the public boat launch at Squalicum Harbor. Not only does this add a lot of traffic at the boat launch, it's also not the safest option for the kids.

The Bellingham Sailing Foundation has been working with the Port of Bellingham to make this improvement. The Port shows a willingness to provide some funding but there are no guarantees.

3) Learning to Sail is more than just messing about in boats - it is empowering to young minds, it teaches science, it is not gender specific, it builds social skills, and it is really fun!

The Bellingham Sailing foundation has the approval and the permits to install the launch ramp, now all we need is the funding to get it installed. We are shovel ready!

We are seeking $100,000 for funding 50% of the project with the hope that the Port of Bellingham will match the funds our contribution (the total cost of this project is estimated at $200k).

This is a legacy project with multiple benefits for the community.

Please support this project. It is as simple as launching and retrieving boats for easy access to the water.

Thank you,

Bellingham Sailing Foundation (for the kids)