Para sailing for all

The bid to restore sailing to the Paralympics is worthy, but there are wider issues that must be fixed

World Sailing is in the midst of submitting its bid to have sailing reinstated to the Paralympics, a process which CEO David Graham is happy to say, in our article on page 11, is involving almost everybody in the organisation. World Sailing is well aware that the significance of the bid, for the sport and disabled sailing in general, could hardly be overstated.

That’s not to say that disabled sailing is in a shabby state. Far from it. In the UK, there are charities all around the coast o ering places on sailboats for people with varying disabilities. Volunteers do sterling work at hundreds of sailing clubs, o ering dinghy rides every weekend to those who would otherwise not be able to get afloat.

We are proud this year to be partnering with the Disabled Sailors Association, based in Portsmouth, whose catamaran Spirit of Scott Bader is one of the busiest boats on the Solent, out every day from March to late season, o ering places aboard for people with all disabilities. Demand is such that the charity is fundraising for a new boat which would double its capacity.

The RYA has launched a Para Sailing Hub, o ering advice and more with the aim of “increasing opportunities for disabled sailors to race and train, locally, nationally and internationally”.

And elite para sailing has continued apace, despite the disappointing Paralympic decision of six years ago. The number of countries fielding sailors in international para regattas has increased by 30%. At the Hansa World Championships in October 2021, 181 para sailors from 23 countries took part.

That kind of global participation will be key to the success of the bid, but World Sailing has plans to increase those figures well beyond the stipulations of the International Paralympic Committee. By next year it aims to have increased worldwide participation to 45 nations. There is also work to increase youth and female participation. The new U25 Para Sailing World Championships later this year include male/female crews.

There are 750 para sailors registered with World Sailing, so overall the numbers are tiny when compared, for instance, to the 14.6 million disabled people in the UK alone, but this is elite sport. The aim is participation and of the course the aim is medals, which in turn provide ongoing inspiration for countless others, older and younger. Our own writers Hannah Stodel and Helena Lucas are just two examples of successful Paralympic sailors who have become figureheads for the sport in general.

The picture, though, is not entirely rosy. At a grassroots level there is always a risk of box-ticking and number-counting – organisations being more concerned with getting people afloat for 15-minute taster sessions than in real participation. These ‘passenger rides’ can provide great mental health benefits, but the beneficiaries are not actively sailing, any more than they’d be driving from the back seat of a car.

At club level, the general policy can sometimes be more segregatory than inclusive, with disabled sailing not part of regular club racing. That is not the case everywhere, with the common sight of the Challenger class the obvious example, but how often do you see a 2.4mR (or any other dinghy designed for disabled people) on the Thursday evening startline?

This raises another complaint – that many disabled sailing dinghies are too expensive for those who are on low or fixed incomes. That life costs more if you’re disabled is well known.

At club level, sharing equipment is one solution but it doesn’t always work out. In a revealing 2019 survey by the Disabled Sailors Association into the state of disabled sailing generally, one competitor said: “Having to wait for my boat while someone is taken for a ride in it is affecting my ability to practice for International events.”

Another said: “I have stopped going to the sailing club as groups of people coming for ‘a sensory experience’ monopolise the boats and I am restricted to 30 minutes of sailing time.”

Separately, you don’t have to dig far to find stories of patronising comments and even of disabled people being refused access by a ‘disabled sailing charity’. In the survey one sailor said: “I had a stroke and lost the use of my left arm, but I must look okay as I was refused by my local club because I was ‘not disabled’!”

Comments like these lift the lid on the untold story of disabled sailing. The headlines tell a very di erent tale and mislead the public into believing that ‘disabled sailing is okay, it’s happening’. The nuances are only felt by those at the sharp end and the unfortunate conclusion that many disabled people come to is that “disabled sailing is run by able-bodied people with no mandate and who don’t understand”.

A successful bid to re-enter the Paralympics, creating (hopefully) those medal-winning moments that make the front pages, won’t improve things overnight, but as with so much in sport, it can create role models and pathways for others to follow. World Sailing will find out in six months if it’s been successful, but success now or not, people with all disabilities able to actively take part in all kinds of sailing, alongside able-bodied sailors, must be the real long-term aim.

“I was refused by my local club because I didn’t look disabled”