OBJECTIVES

The main purpose of the initiative is to promote among young Senegalese the sport of sailing, and more generally, the pleasure nautical activities in all its forms. These activities are not diffused among the Senegalese population and are mainly by done foreign tourists and expatriates.

Senegal has a long sandy coastline on the Atlantic and along which there are several places that lend themselves beautifully to the development of nautical activity. In addition the country has ideal climatic and weather conditions for all year sailing. Many Senegalese have a great familiarity with the sea and helmsman are valid through the traditional fishing activity, which is still one of the great resources of the country, but the navigation is almost exclusively practiced far work, while boating is not a lot of interest and remains inaccessible to the vast majority of the population, mostly for economic reasons.

By giving to the Senegalese (children and adults) the opportunity of attending free or at very low cost sailing school to become familiar with helming a boat, we hope to be able to initiate several people to sailing, laying the foundation for the diffusion of pleasure in sailing. Once basic training is completed we also aim to develop a competitive regattas activity in the country.

We also hope that during this training some talents may emerge and we would give those the possibility of creating high-talented crew, able to participate with honor in international events abroad. The participation to the Olympic Games in Rio in 2016 would be the final result and confirmation of the success of the initiative. This is an ambitious goal, considering the short time we have available, but we feel pretty realistic.

We also believe that the opportunity to practice sailing in Senegal can be an additional asset for developing tourism in the country.

We believe that these goals are fully shared by the Senegalese authorities, which is confirmed by the creation of the Senegalese Sailing Federation in 2003.

The Senegalese Sailing Federation is the main contact and full support is a necessary condition for its success. Naturally the participation of any other person or entity from Senegal to the success of the project will be welcome.

PROGRAM

The project takes place over a period of 4 years (2013-2016), which provides successive phases, starting in 2013 with the establishment of a Sailing School approved by the Sailing Federation who will take care of the basic training to young Senegalese. The promoters will make available to the school, the boats and the financial means to pay the instructors. After the first year the goal is to preselect a group of twenty motivated students who wish to continue sailing and engage in the hope of being selected for the Olympics . Training and selection will continue next year while the School will continue its activity becoming increasingly autonomous.

Once we have individuated one or two crews (in Laser class or 470) with the talent and the desire to achieve a high and available to engage in a pre-Olympic training competitive level, the developers will follow up in helping them to participate in international regattas and in the best case Olympic Trials (2015) and Rio 2016.

COLLABORATIONS

Promoters will put the means, equipment, know-how (in the terms indicated in the proposal) to the provisions of the Project, and it can take place as scheduled. For succeeding we rely on the participation and collaboration of various partners Senegalese, among which in particular:

In Italy we can count on the collaboration of:

We hope to encourage participation in the Project also other Italian nautical associations and obtain cooperation especially in the phase of training athletes.

SPONSORSHIP

Promoters hope that the project, especially if successful, could have a good media response and seeks the attention of Italian or Senegalese sponsor interested in bringing some of the resources necessary to ensure the costs of the sailing school or the Olympic adventure. Any contribution or financial type, or in the provision of equipment, facilities or otherwise, is welcome and will be fully give to the activity to achieve the objectives of the Project. The sponsors will receive in return not only advertising but also the gratitude of the young people who benefit from their help to practice a beautiful and healthy sport activity.

We invite potential sponsors and in general all those who are interested in learning more about the initiative and possibly participate to contact us.