Blind Sailing . . . A small charity opening doors and creating pathways from dipping your toes for the first time to racing for your country.
A club based around its volunteers and the clubs that open their doors and welcome us in, much like the warm welcome we received at Rutland and all I can say they have an army of volunteers.
Rutland sailing club welcomed Blind Sailing in May and June and some would say they provided the perfect conditions on and off shore to run their Keelboat training, in the RS21 ahead of competing at the RYA Sailability Multiclass Event in July.
A big thank you to David Wilkins for helping organize with his team Jon, Bill and Tony and the office for making it all run smoothly. Blind Sailing was able to charter the clubs RS21, a great boat to train in and develop in all conditions.
Blind Sailing is proud to have such great coaches support the charity and these weekends were supported by Steve Irish is a long standing coach to Blind Sailing.
Working and asking questions and goals of the sailors ahead of the weekend and when I say sailors we are one big team when we are training, our volunteers enable us to enter events so training together is key helping us all develop.
Rutland provides a lake with no tide but a long enough fetch in some wind directions creating it creates waves, all conditions that is great to train in for all our events.
As a group having access to the shore to come in and chat or carry out some land drills, really supports the sailors and at Rutland like many of the clubs we work with they provided a great classroom and pontoons we tie up to and work through different elements. Key these two weekends has been foot work.
You may ask why foot work, well if you are new to reading about Blind Sailing you may be thinking how does that work!
Well, a lot is to do with feeling, the wind on your face and the boat underneath you, give it a go when out in the fresh air, see if you can locate the wind on your face and walk and turn and see if you can keep it on your cheek.
With having little or no vision we are not visually learners so much as those that are fully sighted, we listen to instructions and build up our skills, taking on feedback.
But with land drills our sailors can place thier hands on our volunteers and see how to move across the boat, then they can support our sailors doing the same.
This takes away the sails flapping and holding a course and allows time to talk.
So many thank you, our Rutland Water Sailing Club, our volunteers, our key sponsors Rooster Sailing Ltd, ARB Tree and Garden Solutions, RYA Sailability and the Together Fund.
If you want to know more please get in touch and we are also looking for more clubs to support our Sail At Home project getting more visually impaired sailors regularly sailing and racing.
More information available at GBR Blindsailing.co.uk
Next Event: RYA Multi Class Keelboat League
Weymouth & Portland National Sailing Academy, Osprey Quay, Portland DT5 1SA, UK
Saturday 1 July and Sunday 2 July 2023
All day
This weekend will see Blind Sailing enter 3 boats into the event.
Three teams will be selected based on skills and teamwork shown over past weekends in 2023, or past if people have personal circumstances.
More details contract [email protected]
Blind Sailing is a Registered Charity, which provides sailing for blind and partially sighted people. We organise regular training sessions with coaching and help to enable novices to learn to sail.
We also coach the more advanced to enable them to compete at both national and international events. The Charity use lots of different and excellent sailing schools, clubs and organisations all over the UK.
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