Sailability Gold Coast

Another magical summer at Sailability, operating every Tuesday with great weather and good numbers of both clients and volunteers. Such good weather that we didn’t have to cancel any of our Tuesday’s operations. I’d like to take this opportunity to remind our readers of the scale of Sailability in 2019, every Tuesday at Sailability we take 70 plus people with numerous and diverse disabilities sailing with the help of around 100 active Sailability volunteers. One of our clients, Susan has been coming sailing since 2001 and is the first person to head out for a sail. We recently presented Susan with a Sailability long sleeve shirt as a thank you for her continued support.

In recognising the terrific job done by our volunteers the committee handed out badges to 39 members that have committed to over ten years of service with Sailability volunteering their time and experience to keep us running like clockwork.

As we head into the cooler months of the year, we have lots of exciting events happening from our regular Tuesdays, to our social days for our volunteers and Thursdays continuing to see sailors with disabilities getting out on the water and honing their skills.

We have a growing number of sailors stepping up to the higher levels of racing and continuing to push the limits as to what to can be achieved. Recently our own Brendan Hain, (recent baton holder for the Commonwealth Games) had to the opportunity to sail a SKUD with the help of the QPSA.

After solving the issue of Brendan operating the canting seat(by having Jon Simms aboard to do the suck and blow that allows the sailor to tilt to the high side while tacking), he was able to sail with the largest smile I think any of us have seen since he was in the Queen’s baton relay.

Well done to Neil Rowsthorn who competed in the HANSA Nationals being held over Easter in Bunbury WA and placed 5 th and sent the pictures below!