Sailability International meets at
IFDS YES Conference, Amsterdam
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Delegates representing Sailability in Singapore, Australia, UK, Hungary,
Greece, Netherlands, Austria,
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La Voile Ensemble
(France), Associação Portuguesa de Vela Adaptada (Portugal)
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During December, IFDS
held the very successful Youth Enabled Sailing Conference (YES) in Amsterdam.
This was the first conference of its type with 120 delegates, representing 33
countries attending.
Delegates
participated in a busy two day schedule of workshops, presentations, and
browsed through a very comprehensive exhibition of boats, equipment and
displays.
-
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This was an outstanding
opportunity for many new countries to be introduced tosailing for people with
disabilities.
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The day before the
Conference, Sailability representatives from nine countries were fortunate to
have the opportunity to meet face to face. Even though everyone was well
acquainted through email contact, this was the first opportunity for many to
meet each other. A number of important topics were discussed at the meeting
including future development, Sailability International Inc. wishes to
heartily congratulate IFDS on the triumphant YES Conference and thank IFDS for
the opportunity to hold the Sailability meeting.
-
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Currently there are 331
Sailability clubs operating in 14 countries. Sailability International
Incorporated comprises the active national Sailability organisations of UK,
Portugal, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore,
Malaysia, Japan,
USA, France, Greece, Italy, Austria, Netherlands and Hungary.
-
-
Sailability originated
in Great Britain in the 1980. In 1991 Sailability was introduced to Australia
and since 1995 Sailability has proliferated throughout the world, improving
the lives of many thousands of disadvantaged and disabled people through the
activity of sailing.
-
For more information
-
http://www.sailability.org
-
info@sailability.org
- In: Access Dinghy
Telltales
- Official Newsletter of the
Access Dinghy Foundation
- March, 2005 - Volume 6,
Issue 2
Sailability Portugal
Actualização:
21-Fev-2005 |
Portugal
is certainly one of the countries were sailing should be a national sport.
However, as time goes by, this country of sailors has been loosing his
capability to sail. Although this is not entirely true, today sailing is located
at yacht clubs, with their backs turned to the population in general, and for
this reason only very few Portuguese sail. Furthermore, the prices of boats or
any other sailing material are to high for the majority of the population.
With this
scenario as background, the idea of funding an Association for disabled sailors
in Portugal seems to be something with no chances at all to survive. Yet, a sum
of circumstances allowed to invite Chris and Jackie from SAILABILITY to visit
us. So, in few months an idea grew very fast, sponsors appeared and several
persons of Porto and Algarve joined their efforts to build the APVA - Portuguese
Adapted Sailing Association - Sailability Portugal.
However,
we do not forget the important support given by CNFafe - Clube Náutico de Fafe,
ARVN - Associação
Regional de Vela do Norte (Porto), Governo Civil do Porto and CIMAV
- Clube Internacional da Marina de Vilamoura,
who sponsored us with institutional recognition, logistic and financial support
among others.
The
presence at Porto of a "Raquero" class school-boat and the very recent
acquisition of an electric 2.3 Dinghy allowed to start a school with disabled
persons and at the same time to teach sailing for nondisabled persons that will,
in future, help disabled sailors.
Since
then, several demonstrations have been made to hundreds of persons and an
enthusiastic movement is growing.
At this
moment, many projects, aiming to acquire dinghies
and support boats, were delivered to local town halls and are still
waiting for approval, but we are already sure that we will sail!
By Bruno Valentim Sailability
Portugal
Home

The word of Bruno Valentim, Chairman of APVA |
It
is the conviction of the Portuguese Adapted Sailing Association (APVA –
Associação Portuguesa de Vela Adaptada) that the way any person sees himself
depends, among other factors, of her degree of autonomy. In the case of severe
disabled persons, as in many cases, autonomy is lost very near to 100%. By
sailing solo, in total safety, it is most certainly that, at least the feeling
of autonomy will be improved in those persons.
Apart
from the solo or non-solo sailing question, our Association was concerned, since
the beginning of its formation that no double discrimination of disabled persons
should be made, i.e.:
NO
DISCRIMINATIONS BASED ON PHYSICAL ABILITY, and;
NO
DISCRIMINATION BASED ON ECONOMIC STATUS, RACE, RELIGION AND POLITIC OPINION.
Therefore,
the development of the Portuguese national programme started with manual and
electric servo-assisted boats that are not expensive. This way, sponsors feel
very comfortable to sponsor our programme and, step-by-step, from 2002 up to
2004 the number of disabled sailing boats increased from zero to thirty-three
boats. And we are expecting that in the next five years we will multiply the
number by ten.
If
that’s the case, by 2008 in Beijing there will be a pyramid of Portuguese
disabled sailors from which we can select skilful sailors, comprising all
physical functionalities, to participate in all classes of paralimpic boats,
i.e.: Sonar, 2.4 and, let’s hope so, ACCESS Liberty.
Unfortunately,
or not, it has been more easy to acquire Liberties than Sonar or 2.4, once the
former it is not yet recognized as a paralimpic class. In fact, the low prices
of the Liberties give us no other alternative than buy them and promote
championships. Additionally, for those that are familiarized with the ACCESS
class, the three models can be combined among themselves to promote: (i)
initiation; (ii) practice, and; (iii) competition. All of them at very low cost.
The
sum of these three factors is also enhancing educational projects apart from the
ones that are purely recreational. Therefore, institutional protocols are being
held between APVA, schools and universities. And this is promoting inclusion of
the disabled students in the physical activity practice because they can sail a
boat side-by-side with their colleagues without any disadvantage.
So
we have no doubts that we are in the right way in the promotion of disabled
sailing and it would be a great achievement for us that our work can be viewed
as an example and help to promote the recognition of the ACCESS Liberty as a
paralimpic class.
Finally,
we conclude that if the visible face of the disabled sport are the paralimpics
the inclusion of a total autonomy boat for severe disabled sailors will have
major repercussions not only in the future of disabled sailing but also to
severe disabled persons inclusion in the society by showing their outstanding
performances.
Oporto-Portugal,
30 of Mach of 2004
The
Portuguese Association of Adapted Sailing (APVA) is affiliated at the Portuguese
Sailing Federation that in turn is affiliated at IFDS. Additionally, is also
part of Sailability International by promoting sailing for all. Therefore, since
the beginning of our young association our aim was to include severe disabled
potential sailors and avoid expensive sailing. Slowly but steady the number of
our sailors increased together with the number of available boats. Furthermore,
during our first year, we have endorsed a major movement towards demonstrations
and divulgation based on the ACCESS class of boats and the result was the
creation of groups located at Algarve (CIMAV), Lisbon (Clube Náutico da Boa
Esperança and Clube do Mar da Expo), Nazaré (Cercina and Clube Náutico da
Nazaré), Figueira da Foz (Clube Náutico da Figueira da Foz), Porto and Madeira
Island (Clube Náutico do Funchal).
However,
our major event was the participation at the 1st ACCESS Liberty World
Championship. In that meeting our sailors end up in second and seventh
positions, i.e., overcoming all our previsions and expectations. Additionally,
experience and know-how were obtained for our technicians and, finally, a marvelous
staying at Melbourne provided new friends and the way of visit the
old ones.
The
future… well very soon we will have about thirty 2.3 wide seat in Portugal and
three Liberties. That’s a huge responsibility because we will have to make
decisions about “sailing for all” and new demands such as competition, to
increase the number of new disabled sailors and deal with the high competition
elite sailors that will emerge.
It may seem hard but with good winds the boat will
certainly get there.
By Bruno Valentim Sailability
Portugal
Florida's
Sailability Says "Captain Your Own Boat."
Read
about one Quality of Life grantee. |
Surrounded by water and balmy weather twelve months of the year, Florida’s
Gulf Coast is an ideal setting for anyone drawn to the sport of sailing
–particularly those people who live with paralysis and other physical
disabilities.
The Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation (CRPF) and Alder Allensworth, Vice
President and guiding spirit of Sailability of Greater Tampa Bay, Inc. bring the
joy and freedom of sailing to people with paralysis caused by spinal cord
injuries and other conditions. Sailability, a volunteer-run non-profit
organization based in Clearwater, Florida, was a 1st cycle 2002 recipient of a
$5,000 Quality of Life grant – and used the funds to purchase Access Dinghy
303S, a state-of-the-art boat specially designed for spinal cord injured sailors
who require a ventilator to breathe. Since 2001, Sailability has taught 36
people with disabilities to sail, and the first sailor to use the Access Dinghy
303S is currently enrolled in land classes and expects to take to the waters in
October.
Outfitted in Australia, Access Dinghy 303S features sophisticated navigational
electronics and specialized safety features that provide additional stability
and control. “And control,” says Ms. Allensworth, “is key to the
value of a Sailability experience.”
"I encourage my sailors to
be as independent as possible," she said. "After all, they’re
in the boat alone and responsible for every detail. I make it clear that
when they’re sailing, they’re in charge." Why is that so
important? "Someone who has been injured and disabled is forced to be
dependent on other people," said Allensworth. "Here at
Sailability, we make sure that our sailors captain their own boat."
See: http://www.christopherreeve.org/QLGrants/QLGrants.cfm?ID=844&c=12#A
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