Part two: Helping Alison
RYA Sailability is the charity of the Royal Yachting Association which offers people who think they can’t even get on a boat, let alone sail it, the chance to have a go … With your help we can make sure thousands more people with disabilities get out on the water. Please help us to make disability plain sailing.
The BVIWSC’s stated purpose is to provide and maintain a credible, safe and enjoyable environment for students of all ages for the purposes of pleasure, certification and potential employment in the Marine Industry and for the training of athletes representing the BVI in local, national and international sailing events.
Elsa Meyers (right), 17 years old and a qualified RYA dinghy Instructor - the only BVIslander ever to hold that qualification
In 2005, a group of ‘special needs’ students started training at the centre, arranged through the education department, and this programme is known as ‘Sailability BVI’. It is for this group that the Squibs are particularly aimed.
In the year in which we can take great pride that the Special Olympics are to be held at Rutland in Squibs, perhaps we can also give Alison a hand to rebuild some of those Squibs for the benefit of people with disabilities. As the RYA says, please help us to make disability plain sailing.
Alison writes:
Re-building the Squibs takes a long time because I have so little time to devote to it but one boat will be ready to rig maybe mid April. I am hoping that when I can show people that they can look smart again, I will get some local sponsorship to acquire and transport some sails and some spars. Then I will be nagging the NSOA for help!
Alison lifted the boat off the sea bottom and chipped away a couple of inches of pure black carbon from the growth and rot over the years!
I owned a Squib in UK some years ago and I do have a soft spot for them otherwise I wouldn't be crazy enough to be killing myself trying to get ours working again. I do get many withering looks and most people simply don't understand! But I know the kids and adults that we teach will love sailing them and they are such perfect sea boats for our conditions, although I think they will have to be always treated like old ladies when the wind and seas pick up!
So, members of the NSOA, please save up your old sails, spars and bits and pieces to help Alison help disabled sailors in BVI – and at the same time, do something to prove how wrong the detractors were. Peter White has offered to be the ‘collection point.
How do we get the stuff there? Well from UK there is a Peters and May boat that goes over a couple of times a year bringing yachts back and forth for those not keen on sailing the Atlantic. Of course, as Alison says, the best way is to get Peter Horton to steal a plane and fly it over! However, she is confident. “Something will come up, I'm sure, once we have something concrete to move.”
Mainly sails
So please, phone Peter White on 07808 829454 or David West on 01708 731609 with your offer of spare kit. We are looking mainly for sails. There must be plenty of used sails hanging around, especially cast offs from the rockstars. A mast or two would be good, as would a boom, spinnaker boom and a rudder (not necessarily a lightweight one.) Fittings? Yes please. Many thanks for your help.
And just in case you think Alison’s outfit is teaching the kids of offshore bankers, think again. This is for handicapped locals, a very different kettle of fish. It is also for the honour of the Squib Class. I think we have something to show people who rejected us all those years ago.
To quote “All at Sea”, the Caribbean’s Waterfront Magazine (http://www.allatsea.net)
Sailing lessons at the BVI Watersports Centre (BVIWSC) are anything but ordinary. Extraordinary is a better adjective. That’s because founding members Alison Knights Bramble and Colin Bramble truly follow the mission of this Royal Yachting Association (RYA) recognized facility, which is, ‘For Fun, For Life, and for All the people of the BVI’.
‘All’ is the operative word here. Over the past four years, children and adults restricted on land by disabilities and special needs, and previously unaware of the delights of the marine environment around them, have been launched into the sport of sailing through the BVIWSC’s ‘Sailability BVI’ program.
The program does not completely segregate special needs from non-special needs students, but rather integrates all students into able-bodied courses where possible. This makes for a previously unusual sight, which today is perfectly ‘normal’ to both the primary and secondary students that attend the BVIWSC.