Sailing for the disabled

Delighted to see this new pontoon on the shores of Testwood Lakes close to the M27 motorway in Hampshire which will provide sailing opportunities for the disabled.

Work on its construction is now complete and it is to be formally opened on Thursday this week by Geoff Holt, MBE, disability sports ambassador, and a champion for encouraging sailing opportunities for the disabled.

Until recently sailing activity on the lake has been restricted to the 4th New Forest Eling Sea Scouts, The lakes are owned by Southern Water and are part of a designated Wldlife area. The lakes themselves are reservoirs established in old gravel workings, and supplying water to much of Southampton, part of the New Forest and the Isle of Wight.
 
Sailing on the lakes for the disabled is a new venture established under the auspices of the Royal Yachting Association whose Sailability programme round the country  provides  an introduction to sailing for more than 53,000 young people and adults  every year.

A new Sailability group  has been set up at the lakes and will be providing  fully supervised accessible dinghy sailing for people of all ages with any degree of disability on the lake at Totton. The pontoon allows wheelchair access.
 
The RYA says sailing is one of the very few sports in which able-bodied sailors and disabled sailors can participate on equal terms.
 
Geoff Holt himself is a paraplegic sailor, paralysed from the chest down following a swimming accident in the British Virgin Islands.