Their feats are nothing short of legendary
Plymouth fundraising group Tugboats and Dolphins CIC has raised more than £65,000 since starting with cold water swimming sessions in 2020
Their motto is ‘ordinary people doing extraordinary things’ – and some of the feats achieved by a Plymouth fundraising group since their inception have been nothing short of extraordinary.
Having started out as a WhatsApp group organising cold water swimming off the Hoe, Tugboats and Dolphins CIC have now raised more than £65,000 for local charities.Now a registered charity, the group began in 2020 as collection of close friends organising cold water dips in Plymouth Sound.Among their founders is Mike Dunn, a former Royal Marine who is keen to stress that most of their members have had no training in the armed forces.Mike said that all of the fundraisers have full time jobs, and take on their challenges after work. Those challenges have gone from swimming in the icy waters of Crazywell Pool near Princetown on Dartmoor to cycling, hiking and boxing.Last year, three of the team cycled from Ivybridge to Santander in Spain, while earlier this month the group put on their latest ‘fight night’ – an amateur boxing challenge after a gruelling 10-week training programme.
Plymouth fundraising group Tugboats and Dolphins CIC has raised more than £65,000 since starting with cold water swimming sessions in 2020
Mike told PlymouthLive’s sister print title The Herald: “I do completely acknowledge and appreciate the team because all of them have got full-time jobs and to ask them to train for these ludicrous challenges is so good.“They’re not from the Royal Marines, they’ve not had formal training in doing horrible stuff; a lot of them are school teachers, office workers, work at Babcock or in the private sector – but they do their usual work day and then come out for a three or four-hour run.“That’s probably our biggest selling point that we try to get across: Our banners say it’s ordinary people doing extraordinary things.“I’ve watched one of my mates who is a school teacher who, in her own words, said she was overweight and a bit of a mess, but within a year she had done two marathon hikes in a mountainous range, and a marathon, and a winter sea swim for a mile – I thought ‘what a turn around’.“That has probably been the greatest passion of my life to be honest, seeing people realise what they can actually do; they just need to be in a good group and have some direction, and the next thing you know they are doing things that other people describe as ludicrous.”He added: “When we did our first event it was a WhatsApp group saying ‘you swimming?’ but the people who have joined and helped me have been an absolute godsend – certain people have brought in skills, like someone who has come from an IT background has done a website.
“But we’ve got momentum and things we want to achieve.”
Plymouth fundraising group Tugboats and Dolphins CIC has raised more than £65,000 since starting with cold water swimming sessions in 2020
They handed over a cheque for more than £12,000 to Dame Hannahs from this year’s efforts, but have raised more than £16,000 in 2025 already, with Age UK Plymouth also handed a significant sum.
It has seen them raise an impressive total over the last five years, and Mike said: “For the last year we’ve raised £16,300, and that was spread between Age UK Plymouth and Dame Hannah Rogers, and that brought our total up to £65,000.
The Fight Night events have proven so successful for the group that they have held multiple events, all at Boringdon, and which have attracted 250 guests each time.
Mike said: “It’s always complete novices, going from zero to hero, ten weeks of training, they’ve never fought before to fighting at a sold out venue. We have 250 guests, like 30 staff and 20-24 people who’ve never boxed before getting in the ring together – it’s a really good experience to be fair.”
He said: “In addition to that we also do hikes, but they’re closed as we can’t insure them because it’s ridiculous – the last one we did was 33 miles in one day, over the highest points of the Peak District.
Plymouth fundraising group Tugboats and Dolphins CIC has raised more than £65,000 since starting with cold water swimming sessions in 2020
“We do two or three every year in national parks in the UK but they’re more of a team-building exercise, although we do them for charity.
“But the emphasis is on completing the event and then taking the day after to ourselves just to be weird and wonderful.”Mike said that in total, ‘thousands’ have taken part in their challenges, once you add in a swimming festival they have organised off Commercial Wharf on the Barbican.
He explained: “There’s a closed group which is the WhatsApp group of about 20-30 people, with people coming and going for various reasons, but in terms of actually how many people have taken part in the events as guests, swimmers or fighters, it would have to be into the thousands now.”
Far from sitting back though, the fundraising group have already planned their events for 2026, with everything from more boxing nights to a 1,200-mile cycle from Calais to Budapest in Hungary. And next year will be solely in aid of St Luke’s Hospice.Mike said: “It’s all wrapped up for next year, which is quite nice.
“It will be the first year that we only work with one charity because we fully acknowledge that while we’re a registered charity, from our own perspective there’s not that many of us, so it’s easier to work with one charity for a year just to build those relations.“So next year is going to be St Luke’s Hospice; we’re aiming to raise another £10,000 for them.
“In terms of the events that we’ve got planned, we’re starting off with a games night fundraiser this December… and then the training begins for the first fight camp in January, in time for a March show, back at Boringdon.
“Then the day after the fight night, me and two others are getting a lift up to Dover, the ferry across to Calais, and then cycling from Calais to Budapest, which is 1,200 miles.
“We’ve also got a ladies night planned, which should be quite fun – I never thought I would find myself looking at male strippers!
“Then we might do a second fight night, and we’ve got a big hike of Loch Lomond, which is only 25 miles, but the elevation is the equivalent of doing half of Everest in a day.
“So it should be another big year, and hopefully we will get the £10k for St Luke’s.”
You can donate via their fundraising page www.justgiving.com/page/tugboatsanddolphins
