Dear Friends and Fellow Sailors,
Welcome to the third edition of our newsletter Finding Freedom.
I would like to thank our SWA Committee, members, volunteers and staff for your tremendous support for the past year. We are looking forward to another full and successful year ahead.
Our office is now closed for the festive season and will reopen on Monday 8 January 2024.
May health and happiness be your constant companion in the coming year and I hope you enjoy a great festive season with your families and friends!
With warmest regards,
Gary Griffiths | President | Sailability WA
2023 WA Hansa Class State Championships
The 2023 WA Hansa Class State Championships were held at Royal Perth Yacht Club on 2nd and 3rd December, attracting people of all ages and skills to enthusiastically have a couple of days of fun sailing.
So it was that a bunch of sailors with disabilities, together with a team of volunteers and Club staff in support, planned and conducted the WA HANSA State Championships.
You can read the full wrap up report by Graham White here.
2023 Annual General Meeting
We held our AGM on 17 October and are pleased to advise our incoming Committee members are Peter Hugo, Rod Angwin, Graham White, Reg Cornelisse and Lorelle Hughes, who will join Peter Moore (Secretary), Ross O’Brien (Treasurer), Colin Harrison, Greg O’Neill and myself (President).
We thank our retiring Committee members Tony Carter, Barry Honey and Stu Coll for your support and valued contributions. We won’t be letting Tony off easily though – he has kindly offered to take the lead on organising our 2024 Finding Freedom luncheon!
The 2023/24 Season has commenced
We are almost fully booked for our Wednesday and Thursday activities.
If you are a person with a disability and interested in sailing in a Hansa 303 Dinghy, we have 1 spot available to sail on a Wednesday at either 10 or 11am.
We have already hosted our first school program for the year with Beldon Primary coming for a sail as part of their 2023 School Camp Program. Despite being a bit exhausted after being on camp for a few days, the kids thoroughly enjoyed being out on the water with us.
Kylie Forth and the ‘Lost at See’ Blind Sailing Team in action in the UK!
The ‘Lost At See’ Blind Sailing Team recently travelled to Rutland UK to compete in the International Blind League Racing Championships in RS21s. The team, consisting of Kylie Forth (Skipper), Erin McGlew (mainsheet), Kiara Parkinson (sighted jib hand) and Del Kilcullen (sighted tactician) came together at very short notice and sailed 28 races over three days!!
The Team ended up with three 1sts, five 2nds, coming fifth overall and thanked Sailability WA and RPYC for their generous support and to Colin Harrison for coaching them before the event. The Team came a very long way in six weeks and are really happy with their result.
Would you like to make a difference to people with disabilities?
We’re calling for Volunteers to help us provide our supported sailing programs running on Wednesdays, Thursdays and social sailing Sundays from October to April.
We are seeking volunteer skippers, pontoon support, shore support as well as support to use your own vessel to take participants and their carers and power boat drivers (recreational skippers ticket required).
Volunteering is a rewarding experience and full training is provided. For more information and to register as a volunteer visit our volunteering webpage or contact our Program Coordinator, Rachael Cox.
Become a Volunteer – Sailability WA
Have you ever wanted to try sailing and not sure about all the equipment needed and how to go about it?
Come and Try sailing with us, in either a keelboat or a Hansa Dinghy, assisted by our volunteers. The session will take place as follows:
When: Wednesday 24th January 2024
Time: 09:30am.
The cost is $20 per participant and support workers attend for free.
Register through the Humanitix booking system here:
https://events.humanitix.com/come-and-try-sailing-with-sailability-wa
Contacts
Program Coordinator
Rachael Cox
office@sailabilitywa.org.au
Administration Coordinator
Kyllie Whitehead
admin@sailabilitywa.org.au
Sailability WA Inc
PO Box 5
NEDLANDS WA 6909
www.sailabilitywa.org.au
Tel 0404 145 499
Hosted by Royal Perth Yacht Club,
Australia II Drive, Crawley WA 6009
