2025-03-31-accounts - Visually Impaired Sailing Association

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TRUSTEES' ANNUAL REPORT FOR THE PERIOD FOR THE PERIOD 1 APRIL 2024 TO 31 MARCH 2025

1. Reference and administration details

Charity name: The Visually Impaired Sailing Association (Visa-gb) Registered charity number: 1178077

Charity's principal address: C/O Pocklington Hub, 3 Queens Square, London WC1N 3AR Patron: Pip Hare

2. Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity

Trustee name	Office (if any)	Dates acted if not for whole year
Anilkumar Kanani	Chairman and Treasurer	Appointed Chairman 18 November 2024 Treasurer until 1 April 2025
Tim Sandford	Chairman & Operations Manager	1 April to 18 November 2024
Sue Hogge	Vice Chair and Membership Manager	1 April to 18 November 2024
Dee Jones	Vice Chair and Membership Manager	Appointed Vice Chair and Membership Manager 18 November 2024
Stuart Curl	Treasurer	1 April to 30 June 2024
Alan McKee	Visa-gb Ethos Manager
Adrian Higginbotham	Treasurer	Appointed Trustee on 18 November 2024 and Treasurer 1 April 2025
Calvin Laidler	Operations Manager	Appointed 18 November 2024
Simon Maycock	Volunteers Manager	Appointed 18 November 2024

3. Description of the charity’s trusts

Type of governing document: CIO – ASSOCIATION Registered 24 Apr 2018

How the charity is constituted: Association

Trustee selection methods:

Appointed by one member or Trustee recommending an individual for the role of Trustee with an endorsement by second member or Trustee.

Visa-gb

November 2023

4. Charity’s objectives and activities

Our main objective is to provide opportunities for visually impaired (blind and partially sighted) adults to participate in offshore sailing as part of a full crew member with the aim of improving their lives through empowerment, encouragement, confidence building and social inclusion.

5. The Charity’s people

The Charity is run by visually impaired sailing enthusiasts to help other visually impaired adults to enjoy the freedom of sailing. The Trustees are supported by sighted and visually impaired volunteers, including experienced and qualified sighted sailors.

Between them the Charity’s current Trustees have over 50,000 nautical miles and over 75 years of sailing experience under their belt, sailing in both local and international waters. Their experience include taking part in races such as the Fastnet, Round the Island, Cowes Week and crossing oceans making them well qualified to support and develop sailing programmes that benefit other visually impaired adults. The Trustees also have a wealth of experience and expertise running businesses and working in the private and public sectors.

6. Achievements and performance

This accounting period was another very active year building on what we have delivered in the past. We are delighted that we were able to sail in Wales for the third time with the help of Thomas Pocklington Trust and Whirlwind Trust, who part funded this event. We also had a flotilla of four yachts sailing in Scotland. Both these events continue to build on one of our key objective to hold sailing events around the Great Britain. Trips held in 2024 included:

an event designed to train new volunteers in supporting visually impaired sailors,
sailing in Scotland with four yachts;
sailing in Wales with two yachts
taking part in the annual Sailing Vision Trust event;
sailing in the South West of England and the Solent thanks to the continuing support of UKSA; and
sailing to the Channel Islands.

We delivered 67 sailing days providing sailing for more than 50 participants, many of them new to sailing.

The Trustees would like to thank our members, all our volunteers including those supporting us on onshore, and the skippers for their continued support. They all help Visa-gb keep on sailing. We continue to grow our members and volunteers and more new members benefiting from the freedom of sailing.

The wonders of technology, emails and Teams, also helped us to keep in touch with members and volunteers.

During the year we focused on continuing to build our sailing activities designed to encourage people who have not sailed before to have a go. We also started to record the positive impact sailing has on individuals taking part through interviews, some of which are on our website. There is a marked improvement in self confidence and wellbeing as a result of sailing with Visa-gb, which not only has a positive impact on individuals but their family and wider community.

Visa-gb

November 2023

We also worked with organisations that support young adults, such as Victa and TPT to plan and deliver events specifically for young adults (18 to 25). Thanks to funding from The Powell Family Foundations we were able to design two events to be delivered in August 2025.

Achievements include:

We have continued to increase our membership and volunteers over the year through increased marketing activity, interviews on radio and our presence on social media.
We delivered 67 sailing days in 2024 around the Great Britain and Channel Islands
Demonstrating ability over disability.
Improving confidence and self-belief.
Delivering sailing to more new visually impaired adults so they can enjoy the freedom of sailing.
Engaging with more sailing clubs and visually impaired associations throughout the UK.
Creating a community of visually impaired adults through WhatsApp groups and social media posts
Building a sustainable organisation to help continue to deliver more sailing opportunities for visually impaired adults in the future.

Our achievements in 2024 are best expressed by our participants:

‘Being stuck on a boat is paradoxically liberating as a VI. When on board, I don’t need a cane. I feel my way around and everything has a home so where you put something is where it will be when you want it next time. When out on the water, and I am at the helm, it is down to me to keep our course straight by judging the feel of the wind on my face. I am in charge of a 42-foot 8-tonne craft. How great is that?’

‘My first sailing event with Visa-gb was amazing and exceeded my expectation !With an exciting itinerary, a fabulous boat, and a fantastic skipper and crew I and my new found friends were set for an exhilarating adventure. I was drawn to Visa-gb as I am partially sighted, and whilst being an experienced sailor, I struggle sailing with sighted crews in sailing clubs who sometimes are not open to having a visually impaired sailor on board. This was lovely as it was an accommodative and safe environment with understanding skipper and crew who fully support their visually impaired and blind sailors.”

6. Financial review

The Charity is a non-profit making organisation and does not intend to hold large reserves but enough to be able to plan and announce in advance a number of events every year. Membership of Visa-gb is free but members are required to contribute for the cost of their participation in events we deliver. They are also free to make donations if they wish.

Financial Year April 2024 – March 25

The Accounts for 2024-25 have been prepared and examined and approved by an independent examiner. A copy of the accounts and the independent examiner’s report are attached.

In summary the accounts show that the income for the year was £26,051.33. This is made up by Donations of £12,009.33 and Sailing Payments of £14,042.00. The main donations and grants were from Steven Sims - brother of the late Keith (Lofty) Sims who was a founding member and former Trustee of Visa-gb (£3000), Thomas Pocklington Trust (£3000), The Prince of Wales Trust (£1,000) and James Barlow (£1,000). A number of our members raised or donated a total of £5009. Funds raised were through poetry recital (Patrick Adams) and walking (Andrew Windsor).

Visa-gb

November 2023

Expenditure for the year was £23,930.36. The largest costs were for chartering yachts (£18,274.09), victuals (£2,044.65) and fuel and berthing (£1,057.71).

More details can be found in our accounts.

7. Declaration

The Trustees declare that they have approved this Annual Report and the Annual Accounts prepared by the Treasurer and examined by the independent examiner.

Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees Signature(s):

Akanani

Full name(s): Anilkumar Kanani Position: Chairman , Visa-gb Date: November 2025

Visa-gb

November 2023

THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED SAILING ASSOCIATION STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITES FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2025

£ £ INCOMING RESOURCES Incoming resources from generated funds Receipts Donations 12,009.33 Sailing payments 14,042.00 26,051.33 Activities for generating funds Fundrasing Other (incl. refund yacht charter deposit 2021? TOTAL INCOMING RESOURCES 26,051.33 RESOURCES EXPENDED Costs of generating funds Fundraising and publicity Charitable activities Travel (incl Volunteers) 1,508.73 Charter fee 18,274.09 Membership fee 0.00 Fuel/Berth 1,057.71 Insurance 0.00 Computer & Software 696.00 Crew cost (food) 2,044.65 Other 49.18 23,930.36 Carried forward 2,120.97 CURRENT ASSETS Cash at bank and in hand 37,749.28 CURRENT LIABILITIES 5,324.84 NET CURRENT ASSETS 32,424.44 Signed by Treasurer and Chairman Akanani 30-Nov-25 2025	£ £ 19,592.32 14,820.23 34,412.55 34,412.55 1,315.94 14,353.64 323.00 1,077.52 1,792.36 868.66 2,087.01 661.16 22,479.29 11,933.26 35,628.31 13,629.00 21,999.31 2024	£ £ 19,592.32 14,820.23 34,412.55 34,412.55 1,315.94 14,353.64 323.00 1,077.52 1,792.36 868.66 2,087.01 661.16 22,479.29 11,933.26 35,628.31 13,629.00 21,999.31 2024
		21,999.31

Independent examiner's report on the accounts

Section A Independent Examiner’s Report

Report to the trustees Visually Impaired Sailing Association

On accounts for the year ended Set out on pages	31/03/2025	Charity no (if any)

	1 and 2

I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended 31/03/2025 .

Responsibilities and As the charity's trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the basis of report accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”).

I report in respect of my examination of the Trust’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.

Independent I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have examiner's statement come to my attention in connection with the examination that give me cause to believe that in, any material respect:

the accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act; or
the accounts did not accord with the accounting records; or
the accounts did not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a ‘true and fair’ view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination.

I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

Signed: Date: 11 May 2025 Name: Katy Harding Relevant professional CPFA FMAAT qualification(s) or body (if any): Address: 4 Highfield Court, Station Road Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands B73 5LB

Oct 2018

IER

Section B Disclosure

Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight material matters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts: directions and guidance for examiners).

Give here brief details of No disclosures required. any items that the examiner wishes to disclose .

Oct 2018

IER