ACF Sailing – Update 30th Nov – 1st Dec 2019

4 Dec 2019 by Matt Grier

ACF Sailing – Update 30th Nov – 1st Dec 2019

Dear Sailors and Supporters,

A slightly slower update on our activity from the weekend, as things are calming down for others we are finding they are ramping up and thus after a tough windy weekend a good rest has been needed.

So this weekend has to start with an explanation of the Past, Present and Future, exciting times ahead with new partnerships.

Over the last year at the Andrew Cassell Foundation we have been working hard to show how much fun can be had sailing with friends new and old. Also proving with old kit we all ready have like the Sonar’s, just need a little TLC can become a great asset to thrive the development of new sailors disabled and able alike.

We are big believers that increasing opportunities for the greater number of people in turn creates more fun, new friendships and becomes a cycle. To achieve this we had to start again with something new, so we literally began with what we had, who we knew and a lot of belief to get the ball rolling, knowing the lessons learnt from the charities and classes past we could rebuild it all over again.

Our passion to continue to open the sport to disabled and impaired people, being truly inclusive and enabling all with disabilities also meant we have to support able individuals too to build future volunteers. Early on noticed that being based in the UK Sailing Mecca of Cowes, on the Isle of Wight, had a disability of its own and it wasn’t that we are an island. It’s the lack of available time from top / experienced sailors with the ability to train and support others learning. Why? Because their all out sailing having fun! We obviously couldn’t complain about this and thus needed to adapt quickly.

We took the approach that it may take longer to achieve the growth we would like but that we could become stronger and more sustainable longer term. Thus we decide we would also support able-bodied sailors who were still learning, who could have potential to become Skippers in the future or at least competent crew (arms, legs, eyes, strength for those who don’t have them or limited use). Luckily we knew this would be easy as many of our disabled sailors, who are missing limbs, physical mobility and eye sight, were a huge part of our coaching team and thus become the trainers and most of our time is spent working with the disabled or impaired individuals to enhance their understanding and coaching skills.

For example one of our visually impaired sailors Laura, who had never used a kite before is someone we would confidently ask to show anyone how to rig a spinnaker and demonstrate how to get the spinnaker pole up and down, on shore and on the water. Or Steve who is a double amputee who is one of our skippers has been trained up to be a RYA Racing Coach Level 2 and comfortable to skipper with any new sailors and truly show them the ropes.

We truly could not achieved any of this at the Andrew Cassell Foundation over the last year if it was not for the support of everyone around us, including our Trustees belief lead by the legendary Andrew Cassell himself, the Cowes Corinthian Yacht Club team and its membership from the foundations birth in 1997, our on the ground supporters of Ratsey and Lapthorn Sailmakers, World Leisurewear LTD, Jolliffes Chandlery, Alpaca Wraps Signs & Graphics, including Cowes Week LTD and not to forget our sailors and individual supporters. Thank you. – Not to mention those who we look to forward to update you about soon.

This leads on to the future, frankly we keep it as simple as possible, which is similar to the RYA’s Coaching Philosophy ‘To coach the sailor to become their own coach’ but with an added part for us at ACF – ‘To develop sailors who support each other as individuals and team members in the boat and ashore’ with the aim that we create an ethos of fun learning, mistakes which are very welcome with a trial and error approach, in a safe secure environment where disability is not a disability, just another challenge.

With this we are continually aiming to promote sailing opportunities, and support others who in turn are supporting us by going sailing, a great example of this has been on Thursday evening, were we teamed up with the Island Sailing Club for an evening social.

The ISC run a successful Thursday evening training program for beginners and are actively looking into how to help there sailors progress. This winter we will see some of their sailors joining us sailing both in our boats as well as in their own. Our aim is to get as many individuals and boats on the water all year around, preventing numbers dropping off and hoping that sailors will sign up to more fun in the summer. This in turn creates greater opportunities for disabled and impaired individuals.

Weekend – 30th November – 1st December 2019

This all lead on to a fantastic weekend, it was at the top of the wind limited for our novice crews and skippers. Off of the back of Thursdays social with the Island Sailing club 3 individuals joined up with us to get in some more sailing. Watching them sail was a testament to what the ISC do on a Thursday evening and made it really exciting at the thought of them joining in more and more.

On Saturday we had 11 people, 4 in one Sonar and 5 in the other, with 2 in the RIB. 5 can be a little crowded in Sonar but still achievable. It just changes the dynamic and bought in a real sense for discussion about how things get achieved inside a boat. As you can imagine, a whole host of challenges can come about as people need to more around each other and even more so when individuals have never sailed together before let alone have different disabilities.

The weekend was focus on swapping roles as much as possible, creating opportunities and with a short windward leeward course in the shelter of Cowes which became a session on tacking and gybing in bigger breezes with small chop. The session was ended a little short thanks to a missing split ring but it was just enough with the colder temperatures.

Sunday had a different light we are very keen that people come when they can so many only signed up for the Saturday due to work commitments. Thus we only had 4 out on the Sunday, but this mean we could spend more time on the 2 disabled sailors we had with us with a real focus on their straight line sailing and mark rounding. With only one boat it meant we could create discussions live on the water and discussing the challenges we face along with course, prep for mark rounds, and feel of the helm in a breeze. And key points about setting sails including how the jib affects the main sail.

We have so much more to tell especially about the work we are doing in the back ground to try and create more opportunities for disabled and impaired sailors but we will have to save that for another article as it’s too exciting to tell that news just now.

If your just finding out about us for the first time and would like to hear more about your opportunities for all sailing levels or just haven’t got around to getting out with us yet, want to know more about what we are up to, or just generally show us some support then please do contact us at info@acfsailing.org, via our website www.acfsailing.org or check out our Face book page for live updates at www.facebook.com/acfsailing

We are always looking for help in all areas especially fundraising so please do touch base if you have any ideas or would like to help us raise some much needed funds to keep these opportunities going.

Huge thank you to all involved especially our supports which can be found on our website and a huge thank you to John Green Cowes (on Face book) for the great pictures of us sailing off of the green.

Also a huge thank you to the CCYC Members who make us Soup for when we come in from Sailing, please note there is almost always some left over (approximately 1600 on a Saturday and 1500 on a Sunday and if any left others are welcome to come and say hi.

We hope to see you all on the water soon and look forward to hearing from you,

Kind regards,

The ACF Sailing Team



Location

Cowes Corinthian Yacht Club

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