Sponsored by
How to... go sailing (with Rutland Sailability)
YESTERDAY (28 July 2005), Rutland Sailability celebrated 10 years of helping disabled sailors get out onto the water.
YESTERDAY (28 July 2005), Rutland Sailability celebrated 10 years of helping disabled sailors get out onto the water.I joined the sailing club on Rutland Water for one of their Saturday morning sailing sessions to find out more about the charity and the club itself.
When I met Ray Johnston, the chairman of the board of trustees, he was keen to emphasise that Rutland Sailability was a sailing club first and foremost.
Everyone of the club's 200 members, whether they are disabled or able-bodied, pays exactly the same amount of money to be part of the club.
The club's aim is to make sailing accessible to all – the club even has facilities to allow a quadruplegic on a ventilator the chance to get out onto the water.
He said: "We don't differentiate between members. Our youngest member is eight, our oldest is 85. People come here from all over the East Midlands.
"We also have a full training programme for instructors, including disability awareness training and first aid training. We teach people to use the kit so they can become qualified at Royal Yachting Association level."
The support the club gets was clear from a lot of the sails on the boats, which have either been bought, or are kept up by donations from different charitable organisations across the area.
Among those organisations that have offered assistance are the Freemasons, the Women's Institute, the Lions, RAF Wittering, Oundle School and the Inner Wheel, as well as businesses including Perkins Engines, Lloyds TSB and the Norwich and Peterborough Building Society, to name only a few.
Rutland Sailability has very close links with Rotary Clubs in Stamford, Oadby and Peterborough, and in fact the
Saturday sailing sessions feature helpers from Stamford St Martins and Oadby Rotary Clubs.
The club itself has several different types of boats. It has six Challenger trimarans, a Drascombe longboat which can be used to take children with special needs out onto the water, and several 303s, which can either seat one person, or a pupil and an instructor.
Whenever the boats are out on the water there is a specially adapted Delta rescue boat out with them, bought by the Bruce Wake Fund and run by the Rotary Club of Woodhall Spa, and as soon as anybody steps out onto the jetty they have to wear a life-jacket.
Not that there's much chance the boats will capsize, as they are designed to be pretty much unsinkable.
I was taken out in the two-seater 303 by Nick Lovering from Stamford St Marys' Rotary Club.
The boat was designed so we sat side-by-side on a deck-chair style seat, although there were moulded plastic seats also fitted in some of the boats.
It was controlled by the tiller and two sets of ropes looking after the jib and the main sail.
Pretty much straight away I realised this wasn't going to be simply a sailing trip.
Initially I was told to look after the jib, the sail at the front, while Nick demonstrated how to turn the boat.
Then, before I knew it, the tiller was in my hand, and I was trying to sail around two buoys, turning the mainsail and watching the boom swing over my head.
There was no feeling quite like seeing the sail fill as the fairly light wind propelled the boat along. All of a sudden all those Swallows and Amazons books I devoured when I was younger made sense.
There was no real point either when I started to feel out of my depth. After a couple of passes around the buoys, all the techniques began to feel quite natural, despite the odd luff in the sail here and there.
My trip in the two-seater was closely followed by a trip out in the longboat, with Rutland Sailability's founder John Morley.
While I wrestled with the tiller of the much bigger boat for part of the trip, I chatted to the former RAF serviceman about how the society began 10 years ago.
He told me about the first disabled sailor he took out on the water in Portsmouth, and the reaction that he had, which inspired John to set up a bigger organisation.
He believed that a lot of the attraction was the freedom that sailing gave to disabled people – to be completely in control of their environment while they were out on the water.
And with several members now competing in national and international sporting events such as the Paralympics and the World Championships for the Seriously Disabled, there was plenty of scope for members to push their hobby as far as they wanted to go.
The charity was started after the International Federation of Disabled Sailing held its World Championships at Rutland Water in the early '90s.
Initially it began as an informal group with only one Challenger trimaran, but by 1995 it had been formally established as Rutland Sailability.
It now has 25 boats and more than 200 members, as well as a fully-equipped jetty, complete with two hydraulic sling lifts to help less mobile members in and out of their boats.
But all this does not come without a cost. There is a 60 shortfall for every member of Rutland Sailability, and the day-to-day running costs come to 20,000 for the year.
But the freedom and the happiness the society gives to its members is pretty much priceless.
Why do it:
If you have never sailed then you don't know what you are missing. It is a very peaceful stress-relieving activity, that can be enjoyed by anyone of any age, experience and ability.
You will need:
The club has all the equipment available to start you sailing with them.
It will cost:
Membership is 40 a year for adult sailors and 15 for juniors and non-sailing members. The first three sessions are free.
Where to go:
Rutland Sailability meets at Rutland Sailing Club, on Rutland Water. General sailing sessions are on Thursdays and Saturdays, with a race training and special needs children session on Mondays, and special needs sailing on Fridays.
More info:
Contact Ray Johnston on 01780 460311, or Eileen Cokayne on 01332 863459. Or visit www.rutland-sailability.org
All details correct at 29/07/05
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Peterborough
Saturday 11 February 2012
Today
Light sleet
Temperature: -5 C to -1 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: South west
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 1 C to 5 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: North west
Your view
Please sign in to be able to comment on this story.