Dear Sailors and Supporters,

It was great to be back on the water after we sadly had to cancel sailing on the 2-3rd February due to the snow 2 nights before, plus expected higher winds. It wasn’t as much the Snow that was the problem but the ice on the decking and extreme cold weather which would have been a problem to look after individuals with limited mobility.

Either way, we got back out on the 16th and even though the sun decided to hide, it was perfect light winds to continue to practising with spinnakers. Our view is to keep practising as much as possible with them often with changes in crew and people attending we need to get every opportunity we can.

The best part of the weekend was that we had 3 new able sailors joining us. 1 had come along just before Christmas and sailed for the very first time and the others came for one day each. One with very limited experience and another who is used to oars and rowing long distances. The key thing is these able individuals are being trained up by our regular impaired/disabled sailors. All coming off the water with the feeling they have nothing to complain about and full of smiles. Especially when trained by one who has no legs and a few are either partially blind or completely.

This was a great weekend which showed how less to no experience, able bodied sailors can join in and still help by becoming the arms and legs for those that need that help.

We couldn’t be more proud to watch the regular sailors taking on this task of training up new individuals and the always great warm welcome by the CCYC members in the club after sailing. Reinforcing all the time our aim of equality and inclusive racing and a fantastic social environment.

If you’ve not yet joined us and would like to know how to get involved then please do contact us via info@acfsailing.org and check out what we’ve been up to in our previous news articles and upcoming events @ www.acfsailing.org – Each event now shows restricted places (creating a waiting list), this is just for management to prevent us being overwhelmed and making sure we have enough crew to fill a boat.

We look forward to seeing you all on the water.

Yours sincerely,

The ACF Sailing Team

Location

Cowes Corinthian Yacht Club