Charting a course for inclusion

SAILABILITY Northern Rivers is inviting people with disabilities to experience the freedom of sailing ahead of International Day of People with Disability on December 4.

The club’s commodore Chris Cook said the not-for-profit, volunteer-based branch of Sailability NSW sails at Lake Ainsworth in Lennox Head on the second Sunday every month.

“It’s a few hours out on the water and there’s quite a social atmosphere there,” he said.

“We have lunch together and do a bit of sailing, but nothing too competitive.”

Some members have physical disabilities and some have intellectual disabilities, and some have both.

Their fleet of custom-designed one and two-seater yachts, which were largely funded by local Lions clubs, are stored at the Lake Ainsworth Sport and Recreation Centre.

“We have a fellow in Melbourne design them and they don’t sink or tip over or anything else, which

is a fear that some parents have,” Cook said.

“They don’t go at breakneck speeds and of course everyone wears life jackets and we have insurance.

“You start with an experienced sailor then once you get the hang of it you can go by yourself.

“When you’re dependent on other people to do everything in your life, it gives a great feeling of achievement.”

Sixty-nine-year-old Cook, who was born with dwarfism and became a paraplegic in his 20s, began sailing with his dad in Sydney as a child.

“There weren’t many things I could do as an individual and sailing is one of the very, very few things that you can do on an equal level,” he said.

When he was in his 20s he built a 26 foot yacht, which he sailed north to Ballina,

co-founding Sailability in the region in 1997.

It was the second branch to launch in Australia, after Sydney.

“Now there are 30 or 40 groups and it’s all over the world,” Cook said.