Sailability

Finally we are back…well sort of! Our last season was shut down suddenly so we were all eager for Sailability Season 20/21 to commence. After many hours of maintenance work lead by David Staniforth-Smith our boats were in ship shape and ready to sail.

On 7th October over thirty volunteers descended and like ants were running around in a seemingly organised fashion so that we were all ready to get our first participants on the water at an earlier time of 9.30. It was like a lovely to catch up with old friends and new, many of whom we have known for many years.

Our safety guy, John Hassen, unfortunately had a constant and nervous hold of his anemometer as the predicted noon front started to make its presence felt early, around ten. John had to make that horrid call that we must abandon sailing. Experience has shown that one of the hardest things that we ever do as part of volunteering with Sailability is to make and communicate that call. We wear our hearts on our sleeves when we volunteer each Wednesday as we see the positive emotions that evolve from getting people out on the water – whether that emotion be excitement and joy or calmness or even a quick twitch of a smile.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank Doug Smith from Coffee Point Marine who supplied us at cost with ten new water activated lifejackets and acknowledge Healthways for their generous grant. Thank you to the generosity of Tyre Power, Pacific Safety Wear, Appealing Signs, Doyles Sails. We also gratefully acknowledge the on-going support of our founders – Melville Rotary and of course our yacht club. Always the bosuns led by Robbie Wilson are great support to Sailability.

Please if you are thinking of maybe volunteering come by on a Wednesday morning and check us out. We need not only skippers, crew and powerboat drivers out on the water but many land-based volunteers. We tend to need a roster of forty plus to ensure we have enough to run our section each week. Alternatively call Liz Warman on 041 994 9006, Mark Popham on 0410 474 847 or email us at SailabilitySOPYC@gmail.com.