UVM’s sailing team has received a new fleet of boats for the first time in 11 years, which comes with a $185,000 price tag, said senior Christian Cushman, treasurer of the UVM Sailing Club.

The boats are scheduled to arrive in spring 2025 and will include a new fleet of 18 “Zim FJs,” or Flying Juniors, a style of dinghy made especially for college competition, according to the sailing team’s donation page.

“It’s a pretty big reinvestment into the team,” said Cushman.

The team has received an internal loan of $185,000 from SGA to finance the boats. With this, the sailing team was able to make the purchase while fundraising at the same time, Cushman said.

Cushman said a little under a third of the money to pay back the loan will come from selling the old fleet—just over $50,000.

With that, the team is also using money that has been fundraised and saved over the years, Cushman said. 

“We have a really strong alumni and parent network, so [we’re] trying to tap into them,” he said.

“A good portion of our budget goes to our coach and he’s technically an SGA full-time employee […] and then the remainder of that goes towards travel, rent at the sailing center and conference dues,” he said. “I’d say we probably get about $25,000 to $30,000 from the school that does not include coaching.”

“It’s a pretty big deal. Every 10 or so years, teams that want to stay more competitive will get a new fleet,” Cushman said.

SGA treasurer Matt Sorensen said that SGA made an agreement with the team to fund the boats.

“They submitted a loan request to us because the fleet was too expensive, so we created with them a plan two years ago for a six-year plan for them to end up paying the loan back to SGA,” he said.

Clubs are funded by the student activity fee, which is $111 of each student’s tuition every semester they attend UVM.

Clubs can request that money in two ways, either through the fiscal year budget or through supplemental funding, Sorensen said.

“SGA’s business philosophy for all clubs and all activities, including SGA, is that we supplement costs. We don’t fully fund anything, and so there’s requirements attached to budgets,” he said. “Clubs are required to fundraise a certain amount for every dollar they get from SGA.”

Sorensen said a loan of this size is rare for clubs. 

“That is something that was unique to sailing because they needed new boats to continue to be a club and be active,” he said.