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The recent stopover in Auckland of the yacht “Oceans of Hope” was one of the many legs in its journey to be the first to circumnavigate the world with a crew of sailors with Multiple Sclerosis (M.S.). The Yacht is a Challenge 67.
The yacht left Copenhagen in June last year, taking in various ports of call in Europe and America, then via the Panama Canal to island-hop across the Pacific to New Zealand. It has now completed another leg from Auckland to Sydney and is currently on the next leg heading for Singapore, taking in various ports of call in Australia.
There is a crew of nine, which consists of three sailors with the “Oceans of Hope” and six volunteers, all who have M.S. At each leg of the journey some or all of the six M.S. sailors are replaced.
When the yacht arrived in New Zealand it coincided with Auckland M.S. Society’s 50th Anniversary. The yacht was berthed at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, where a luncheon was held to celebrate the Auckland M.S. 50th Anniversary and welcome the crew to New Zealand.
In each port of call the chance is given to people with M.S. to go out on the yacht for a few hours. This wasn’t a free ride – you had to do what you could to help with the sailing of the boat. This involved helping in the hoisting of the main, setting the foresail, trimming sails, and taking the helm. Each of these trips allowed ten people with M.S. to experience sailing on this boat. In Auckland there were over fifty people who took this opportunity. I was fortunate enough to be one of those given this chance. I was, however, very apprehensive as this would be only my second time on an ocean going yacht, and the first one was an attempt to sail from Auckland to Whangarei which ended with me being put ashore at Gulf Harbour, suffering from seasickness. On the Oceans of Hope we sailed around the Auckland Harbour for a couple of hours and fortunately I was fine. Everyone on board had an amazing time and they all expressed the wish to sail again. Hopefully some of them will take this wish further and contact “Sailability” in their area.
Just google “Sailability” to find your closest sailing venue, or contact your local sailing or yacht club. Sailability offers sailing to people with a wide range of disabilities. At age 62 my first experience of sailing was with Sailability Auckland. I progressed from never having sailed to sailing single handed and competing in regattas around the North Island. Well worth making contact with them.
To track the yachts journey just google Oceans of Hope to see where they have been and where they are going.
Editor’s note: Max Stacey has two Hansa boats (a Liberty and a 2.3) and has recently diversified into land yachting so now owns a Blokart too.
