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Making sailing a breeze for the disabled
Peterborough Sailability is in its second year of offering disabled people the chance to get behind a sail and relax on the water. Jemma Walton Found out more.
Peterborough Sailability is in its second year of offering disabled people the chance to get behind a sail and relax on the water. Jemma Walton Found out more.IT might have been bucketing it down and even hailing on Tuesday, but that didn't stop the rabbits and magpies at Ferry Meadows coming out to play.
And it didn't put off a group of disabled people from finding out just how sweet the air blowing through your hair can be, how it feels to be out on the water, captain of your own ship.
It would take more than pouring rain to stop them from discovering more about themselves and the world around them.
Peterborough Sailability is a group which aims to provide a sailing club for people with disabilities.
Related articles: How to... go sailing (with Rutland Sailability).
Peterborough Sailability feature: Setting sail to help disabled people.
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Its popularity, since it was set up last year, has grown and grown, with about 30 adults and youngsters now taking to the city's Ferry Meadows country park's sailing lake each week.
With the help of able-bodied volunteer sailors, participants are able to sail a trimiran.
The group's chairman, and Rotary Club member, James Hopgood, explained: "We want people to be able to enjoy sailing, no matter what disability the have.
"The focus here is on sailing rather than disability."
The seeds for the club were sown by Peterborough Rotary Club, but it is hoped that, as time goes by, the group will take on a life of its own and be able to run as an independent charity, by its members for its members.
Four of the people taking to Ferry Meadows' sailing lake on Tuesday were Jennifer and Daniel, who are both 18 and Alexander and Zeber, who all attend the Phoenix School in Orton Goldhay, Peterborough, for children with severe learning difficulties.
Phoenix teaching assistant Ulli Gale said: "Alex is blind and absolutely loves coming here. You can just see by the look on his face that it's his favourite time of the week.
"His face just lights up. He smiles when he's getting ready, he smiles all the way here, and, of course, he smiles when he goes out on a boat.
"It was raining today and he was going to get soaked, but he didn't care, he just laughed.
"Coming here gives him a feeling of independence
Daniel is deaf and has learning difficulties, and said he loved going sailing. He added: "I like football very much, but coming here is exciting and the people are very good."
But Sailability isn't just for young people – 63-year-old David Malphus suffered from a stroke six years ago, and says sailing gives him a sense of freedom.
He said: "It was confusing at first, getting to grips with the tacking and the jibing, but it's good to develop new skills.
"I was in the airforce years ago and was interested in sailing then, but . . ." and he makes a glass shape with his fingers and lifts it to his mouth and smiles. "I was too young and didn't pay it enough attention. But I do now."
Mr Hopgood, who is retired, learned to sail on the Norfolk Broads and has been a sailor for most of his life.He hopes more and more disabled people will come along, that the facilities can be developed – at the moment the club works out of Peterborough Sailing Club's rather bare wooden shack – and that more people will earn a Royal Yachting Association level one or two qualification.
"The only trouble is that, as numbers grow, we will need more volunteers to help out," he added.
"But sailors tend to be a jolly, co-operative group of people, and so there shouldn't be too many problems."
As for how he, an able-bodied sailor for decades, feels when he looks out on the water and sees people with disabilities finding out about life on the open sea – or lake– he smiled, and said: "I can't think of a better way to spend a Tuesday afternoon."
As for Ulli, and what she thinks the young people she brings along get out of their few hours a week at Ferry Meadows: "It gives them joy, independence, self-confidence and opportunities they wouldn't normally have," she said.
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Weather for Peterborough
Saturday 11 February 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: -5 C to -1 C
Wind Speed: 7 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 2 C to 4 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: North west
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