Earlier this year the NABD received an invitation from Clare Gray, of Tideway Sailability, to have a day's sailing with their club. The Tideway sailing club was started in 1982 by a group of disabled people, (blind, paraplegic, and polio) with the aim of making sailing available cheaply to anyone who was keen to try. They attracted able-bodied people who wanted to help, and enjoyed sharing their sailing enthusiasm in this way. That's how it has continued, and today the club has around a 50% ratio of disabled/ablebodied members. It was a scorcher of a July day when around a dozen of us congregated in the Tideway car park. The club had proved a little difficult to find, and tempers were a bit frayed after several laps of Rotherhithe one-way system dressed in all our bike gear. We stripped out of our steaming leathers and into shorts a quickly as possible, and after Introductions to Clare and the club members, donned lifejackets and filed down the Jetty to start what, for most of us was, our first attempt at sailing. It was a great day on the water, the weather was perfect with just enough wind to make things interesting. With so many boats whizzing around In the confined area of the dock, and a couple of novice windsurfers who had a habit of falling off right in front of you, things got a bit hairy at times. After about 3 hours we were really getting the hang of it, with shouts of "Ramming speed Captain" and "Set course for Cape Horn" echoing around. Although Spike (our local stunt man and dedicated thrill seeker) wasn't very keen on the idea of walking the plank, muttering some nonsense about his wheelchair not floating very well - spoilsport. We finished the session a tired, sunburnt but happy bunch, with everyone saying they would love to have another go. I would like to thank Clare and all those at Tideway for the invitation, and for organising a wonderful day out. I would also like to thank Gren and Damien Russell for travelling down from Wolverhampton for the weekend so they could take part. This day was offered to our group F.O.C by Tideway as a way of bringing like-minded disabled associations together. There are sailing clubs similar to Tideway in other areas of the country, and Gren Russell will look into the possibility of launching similar initiatives with them. Tideway Sallability offer a year's membership at £52 (waged) and £26 (unwaged), and the club sails most weekends throughout the year (weather permitting). Contact:
Tideway
Sailability Tel:
Clare
Gray-0208
858 1822 |
