Issue date
Sailability Wellington, a charitable trust that provides sailing opportunities for people with disabilities in Greater Wellington, launched its brand-new safety boat at Evans Bay Yacht Club on Sunday July 19.
Four days a week, from 9am till 3.30pm, Sailability Wellington club captain Don Manning, and his squadron of volunteers, work with 136 Wellingtonians to get them into 14 Hansa Class yachts on Wellington Harbour. Participants range in age from nine to 74 and have myriad disabilities from intellectual challenges to Spina bifida, cerebral palsy and brain injury.
Their new safety craft has been wholly funded by one of its sponsors, Wellington Community Trust, to the tune of $27,000. Christening it "Trusty" and launching it by breaking the traditional bottle of bubbly on the bow, community trust chief executive Mark Cassidy said it was unusual for his trust to pay for a project in its entirety.
"But when the application came in, we just felt we had to be associated with it fully. Our Trust supports projects that encourage Wellington wellbeing, sport and recreation, culture and the arts, the environment and heritage.
"This Sailability Wellington project ticked a lot of those boxes for us," he told the more than 100 friends, volunteers and Sailability trustees who gathered at the yacht club for the launch.
He shrugged off thanks for the community trust's generosity. "This is your generosity. It's what you do -- and we are pleased to support it."
Rongotai Labour MP Annette King, congratulating Sailability trust chairman Warren Rankin and club captain Don Manning for the opportunities they afford people with disabilities to learn to sail and, often, to compete, said, "This investment will have lifelong rewards ..." The opportunity that Sailability afforded people "gives them courage, strength and a belief in themselves".
‘Trusty’, the new safety boat, succeeds Spirit of Altrusa, launched eight years ago with financial support from local Altrusa clubs. It will soon be based at Porirua, hopefully with Titahi Bay Boating Club, with which Sailability Wellington is working to shortly open its third Wellington base. The second is at Lowry Bay Yacht Club at Seaview, in Lower Hutt. Sailability Wellington has a waiting list of more than 90.
