As 2025 comes to a close, it is a good moment to look back at the parts of our ecosystem that carry the most meaning beyond day-to-day operations. One of them is the Ruhunu Sailing Club, a programme attached to the BAF Foundation, which runs every Saturday and introduces young people from the South of Sri Lanka to sailing.
The concept is simple and consistent: free Optimist sailing lessons, taught by Sail Lanka’s trained captains, including Kumara, and made accessible to children from local communities in Mirissa and Jaffna. For many participants, it is a first contact not only with sailing but with the sea as a space for learning and discipline. On an island, most of us could think that should be normal, but in reality, access to sailing and even basic water confidence is still limited for many families, especially outside the main urban centres. In that way, Ruhunu Sailing Club matters while it creates skills, but also new directions for these young people across the island.
Over the years, the sailing club has helped turn curiosity into real vocations, and sometimes into careers. One of the clearest examples is within our own teams at Sail Lanka, where a current Sail Lanka captain first joined Ruhunu Sailing Club as a young student. Through the programme, he learned to swim, built confidence on the water, and progressively developed strong sailing skills. After completing school, he later joined the BAFF, and from there entered Sail Lanka, where he grew step by step into a leadership role and is today the boss of a boat.
Stories like this are exactly the reason the program continues. Not because they are exceptional, but because they show what becomes possible when access exists. The Saturday sessions are intentionally run in small groups, allowing instructors to focus on safety, learning quality and individual progress, reflecting the nature of sailing itself: it requires attention, repetition, and close supervision, especially at the early stages.
In parallel, the same approach is also being developed in the North of the country, where SLYG has expanded its presence over the past years. The objective is not to replicate a program for the sake of replication, but to extend what has worked in the South: practical access to the water, structured learning, and opportunities that can connect young people to maritime pathways, wherever they grow up in Sri Lanka. Ruhunu Sailing Club remains one of the most direct expressions of what the Building A Future Foundation represents within SLYG, with long-term investment in people, skills, and local opportunities.
