Broads Authority hands over adapted dinghy to club for disabled sailors
The Broads Authority hands over a specially adapted sailing dinghy to a new sailing club for disabled people at Oulton Broad on Tuesday 29 August at 3.00pm.
Nigel Dark, Administrator of the Authority’s Sustainable Development Fund, will be sailing the 10ft Access 303 sailing dinghy to Waveney Sailability’s headquarters at Waveney and Oulton Broad Yacht Club and handing it over to club secretary Kevin Taylor.
The dinghy, which bears the Broads Authority’s dragonfly logo and has been named 'Tom-Breezer’, the Suffolk name for dragonfly, will bring Waveney Sailability’s all Access fleet to eight. Others have been provided by local Rotary Clubs - while a Squib has been donated privately. Another dinghy is to be donated shortly.
Waveney Sailability’s £6,750 grant has come from the Broads Authority’s Sustainable Development Fund, which is provided by the Government. It is intended to make Waveney Sailability, a Rotary Centenary project, as self-sufficient as possible and has provided funding for RYA training for 10 assistant instructors and rescue boat operators as well as leaflets and a website.
Secretary Kevin Taylor, who was one of the people who started the club a year ago, said: “The Broads Authority’s funding is absolutely brilliant. The club is really taking off. The boats are in constant use every week. We never have a boat standing around doing nothing.”
The dinghies, which cost £3,500 each, carry lead in their centreplates so they don't capsize, they are operated by a joy stick, have a high boom to give plenty of headroom and deckchair type seating. There is room for an RYA trained instructor to sit beside the trainee for hands on training.
The club has about 45 members with disabilities from the Lowestoft, Great Yarmouth and Norwich areas who, for £50 a year, can book a sail for half an hour every Tuesday afternoon. Twenty able bodied volunteers and RYA instructors from the Oulton Broad Watersports Centre run the sessions.
Sailability clubs are run by the Royal Yachting Association throughout the country with about 10 open meetings a year. David Brooke, from Waveney Sailability, plans to compete in an open event at Alton Water near Ipswich and several members are gearing themselves up for the Paralympics.
“Sailing transforms disabled people’s lives,” said Kevin. “It puts them on a level playing field with able bodied people and gives them the independence and freedom they crave. One man who came after having a stroke said he thought he’d never sail again. Another person who doesn’t communicate is in his element sailing. It’s wonderful to see them smiling.”
For information about Waveney Sailability ring secretary Kevin Taylor on 01502 475228, mobile 0771 2248044 or email kevin-taylor@lineone.net.
24/08/2006
