The search for an accessible boat
Practical Boat Owner|October 2020
What boats are best suited for disabled sailors? Ian Cameron recounts Fife SailabilityÕs exciting journey from trimarans to powerboats
Ian Cameron
The search for an accessible boat

I’m a member of Port Edgar Yacht Club, and like most clubs and recreational sailors, our default position regarding charities has always been to support the RNLI. Everyone loves the RNLI, and some of us have had the misfortune to be towed back by them. For me, nothing life-threatening, fortunately – just a rather embarrassing engine failure on a strong ebbing tide when there was no wind to enable us to sail to safety. It’s hardly surprising that proceeds from our jumble sales, raffles or donations of any kind went straight to this wonderful organisation.

So when one of our members suggested that the proceeds of the raffle go instead to Fife Sailability one year it came as a surprise. Most of us had neverheard of the organisation. So he raised awareness of the club and started a journey for me that began with a visit to see them in action, which ultimately led me to becoming a trustee of the charity and then its chairman.

Fife Sailability, based at Lochore Meadows, was founded in 2012 by Merrick Yates and Neil MacDougall with the purpose of teaching disabled people to sail. It attracts people from Edinburgh and the Lothians as well as Fife, Perthshire and beyond.

The area was home to several coal mines in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and after the last of these closed in 1966, restoration work to create the country park began. Today it’s a beautiful recreation area. The loch, with a surface area of about 110 hectares, is shared with many other users, from families to St Andrews University students, who row and match-race on the water. The prevailing westerly provides an onshore breeze at the pontoon. By inshore sailing standards it’s quite true, steady and well suited to sailing our Challenger trimarans.

Testing the trimaran

この記事は Practical Boat Owner の October 2020 版に掲載されています。

7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。

この記事は Practical Boat Owner の October 2020 版に掲載されています。

7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。

PRACTICAL BOAT OWNERのその他の記事すべて表示
Orca sink yacht in Strait of Gibraltar
Practical Boat Owner

Orca sink yacht in Strait of Gibraltar

Spain's maritime rescue service, Salvamento Maritimo, has reported that a 15m (49ft) yacht sank in Moroccan waters in the Strait of Gibraltar following interaction with a pod of orca.

time-read
1 min  |
Summer 2024
No kill cord or lifejackets were worn during fatal powerboat crash
Practical Boat Owner

No kill cord or lifejackets were worn during fatal powerboat crash

A kill cord and lifejacket are useless unless worn-that's the warning from the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB), following its investigation into a powerboat crash that killed a 32-year-old woman and five-year-old girl on 2 October 2022.

time-read
2 分  |
Summer 2024
Multihull sail work
Practical Boat Owner

Multihull sail work

Brush up on multihull sailing skills before heading off on charter with Gavin Le Sueur's guide to spinnaker handling, tacking and gybing

time-read
4 分  |
Summer 2024
Five top causes of engine failure and how to prevent them
Practical Boat Owner

Five top causes of engine failure and how to prevent them

Jake Kavanagh talks to Sea Start marine engineer Nick Eales about how to avoid the five major causes of an engine breakdown at sea

time-read
10+ 分  |
Summer 2024
Sail the Atlantic with strangers
Practical Boat Owner

Sail the Atlantic with strangers

Would you sail across the Atlantic with someone you've just met? Ali Wood meets the cruising crews who've done just that

time-read
10 分  |
Summer 2024
IZIBoat: simple sailing
Practical Boat Owner

IZIBoat: simple sailing

Rupert Holmes sails an innovative catamaran design intended to widen participation in sailing among those with little time to get on the water in more conventional craft

time-read
7 分  |
Summer 2024
30 WAYS TO GET AFLOAT
Practical Boat Owner

30 WAYS TO GET AFLOAT

From tall ships to small dinghies, you needn't own a boat to sail. Ali Wood looks at the options, and how skippers can also find crew

time-read
10+ 分  |
Summer 2024
Boats for restoring under £20,000
Practical Boat Owner

Boats for restoring under £20,000

Duncan Kent picks the best sub-35ft sail and power boats to look for when aiming to undertake a restoration on a budget

time-read
10+ 分  |
Summer 2024
Seaworthy dinghies for less than £500
Practical Boat Owner

Seaworthy dinghies for less than £500

For low cost traditionally-styled GRP trailer-sailers, consider the Foreland and the Otter available at bargain basement prices

time-read
5 分  |
Summer 2024
Playing with coloured sails
Practical Boat Owner

Playing with coloured sails

Maintaining an hourglass-shaped balloon and ratcheting up the log numbers

time-read
3 分  |
Summer 2024