Archive for the ‘Sail Days’ Category
February 21st, 2012 | 
Author: What a pleasant morning was had by all! Despite the temperature being 30 degrees, a gentle breeze kept us relatively cool. The new Sun Safe Shirts and Hats on parade by the volunteers and members was great to see.
Regular sailors Josh, Jamie, Connor and Charlotte had fun as usual. Welcome to today’s new sailor – Paul – we hope you enjoyed your day and will come again. A great turnout of volunteers, with 12 of us around, the work load was well shared. Thank you to all.
We would like to welcome Graham as a new member, happy you found your footing today and look forward to your participation in the future. This is also the perfect opportunity to thank all current members for payment of this year’s membership; we look forward to a happy, prosperous year on the water (or the shore!!)
Don’t forget next Sail Day is Tuesday 6th March. 9am for volunteers and 10am for sailors.
Annie and Steve have been visiting their daughter in Perth and took the opportunity to have a sticky beak at what Sailability gets up to in the west.
They have a full time employed organiser, Shay Kennare, who kindly took time out of her busy morning to talk to us.
Because the wind was over 15knots they weren’t using the Access dinghies, although one older sailor did take one out. Every one else was taken out in one of their 3 small yachts, 3 or 4 sailors at a time. Plus a skipper and crew and carers to look after the sailors.
I’ve added some captions to the photos in the slide show below so they should be self explanatory. (You’ll need to click the text thingy in the bottom left corner to get the captions.)
The last slide is actually a video showing a sailor being lifted into the boat with a hydraulic crane. You might have to double click the slide to get the video to run.
They charge $7 per sail. They also have a sliding scale of annual charges for organisations depending on how many sailors they have.
They sail 3 times per week.
- Wednesdays are for their less disabled sailors.
- Thursdays they take out severely disabled people.
- Sundays are for the serious sailors who are training for competition. Including blind sailors. The buoys emit different sounds so they can be identified.
The Mackay Yacht Club has recently decided to host Sailing at the North Queensland Games to be held in the Mackay region 22-25 June 2012. The NQ Games is the largest regional sporting event in Australia attracting thousands of competitors in over 40 sports and the event is open to all.
The Mackay Yacht Club invites us to compete in the regatta. We are the closest Sailability club to Mackay.
Contact us to arrange your next adventure.
Posted in Sail Days
Are you aware that some sailors at Sailability compete in open dinghy racing at Southport Yacht Club?
Open “B” division contains able bodied sailors as well. The only handicaps are for the boats not for the sailors. There are other types of boats in “B” division.
Congratulations to Sailability Gold coast member and sailing competitor Brendan Hain.
Brendan is pictured here with his recently won trophies.
2011 Southport Yacht Club Access Dinghy Class Champion
2011 2nd place Southport Yacht Club Open “B” division.
2011 Southport Yacht Club Dinghy Handicap series Division “B” winner.
Well done Brendan
Posted in Sail Days
With the support of our all ability organisation, there is a pathway for you to compete with your local able bodied sailing club, as well as get to high profile events like the Access Worlds. Its all fun!
Bernie
Posted in Sail Days
If you were at the party then your photo will be here. Thanks to Steve Pepper for his photography.
This looks good to me.
Sailability Floating Pontoon in Canberra
There are more photos here.
The company that makes them is Superior Jetties from the Gold Coast.
Let us know your thoughts.
Posted in Sail Days
It was so peaceful early on Tuesday morning down at the lake. The sun was poking its nose out from behind the clouds. A gentle breeze wafting across the smooth waters. Beautiful.
And then along comes Sailability. Cars, trailers, people, noise, laughter. Who needs peaceful, let’s have some fun. Read the rest of this entry »
Sailors
Our regular sailors Sara and Jamie, as well Conrad who came through the Sporting Wheelie’s organisation.
Numbers are always down in the winter months. Not sure why, it was very pleasant at the lake.
We are slowly working away in the background at increasing participation. When we have 20 sailors every sail day with all their carers we’ll look back at this gentle time with a great deal of nostalgia. Read the rest of this entry »
Sailors
Our regular sailors Sara, Michelle and Jamie, were there as well as 6 girls from Glenmore High. They were accompanied by teachers and parents most of whom got out on the water.
Michelle, the teacher who organised the trip, was amazed at how well behaved the girls were. Very peaceful. Not sure if it was the surroundings at the lake or Sailability. We’ll pretend it was us. Read the rest of this entry »