Wealden Sailability

Last Friday, Brian Stanley was recognised at the Annual RYA Volunteering Awards for his many years of volunteering with Wealden Sailability – so well deserved and I am sure we are all so appreciative of the amazing organisation that he founded and continues to give so much time to.

Below is the RYA press release about the event, which includes a video. The eagle-eyed among you will spot that HRH The Princess Royal was also honoured by being seated next to Brian for the lunch!

The Francis Elkin Award

The Francis Elkin Award, dedicated to the memory of a former RYA Council Chair and Sailability Trustee, recognises exceptional individuals who have made significant efforts to enable people with disabilities to become involved in sailing. This year, the award went to Brian Stanley who founded Wealden Sailability in 2008, making it one of the largest Sailability organisations in the UK. Brian’s commitment and leadership have been the backbone of Wealden Sailability’s success, providing sailing opportunities to people with disabilities and positively impacting their wellbeing.

On receipt of his award, Brian said the following.

”There were a lot of clubs there [today], many of them I’ve never heard of before … Lots of people who are giving so much time to so many other people, and normally they don’t get recognised. I think it’s absolutely terrific that they can go up there and be presented to The Princess Royal to get their award.”

On behalf of all of our volunteers and clients, Brian, congratulations on winning your award and Thank You!

With the 2023 season now over, 3 winter talks have been organised to help pass the winter months. Each talk will be held in the Clubhouse 11.00 – 12.00 on a Thursday. Come at 10.30 for a chat beforehand.

Date	Speaker	Topic
25th January	Mick Janes	Being a Tug Boat Captain – Some of you may know Mick as he has been the bosom for CSC and helped WS. He’s recently retired as a tug boat Captain and is pursuing his passion as a marine artist. Areas covered in his talk will be training, types of tugs, salvage, who has control – tug boat, pilot or ship, etc
15th February	Bunny – St Stephen’s School	Managing Sight and Hearing Impairment People
7th March	Nigel Lamb	Discussion on Boat Design and Racing Techniques

27th July, 2023

After the completion of the Sailability Spring Series, the planned race for combined race Sailability & Women on Water (WoW) took place.

The outlook had not been good with a forecast of strong winds and heavy rain, but the morning was much better than anticipated, though still somewhat damp. But we are sailors after all. The wind was good with a steady breeze from the South West, though there were moments when it was moving around by nearly 90 degrees. The course was set as a start to A, then C, K to port and then to SAS, an area outside Sailability’s normal boundary.

To keep the fleets apart, WoW started at 11.17, 3 minutes ahead of Sailability with their regular start time of 11.20. Starts went well with no recalls. By the end of the race at lap 3 for WoW, they had just started to lap Sailability, so there was a straightforward finishing process, with Sailability’s race shortened to 2 laps.

There was a lot of positive response to the event and enthusiasm for more this year, and we’ll be looking at what can be arranged. The results were out by 12.20 and are attached below.

Wealden Sailability 2023 Racing News Final

The last racing date is Thursday, October 19th. On that date, we’ll be having a group race between WOW v WS. Afterwards, prizes will be presented to the racing winners for the season.

The last sailing date is Thursday, October 26th. There will be no official race but I’m sure we can conjuncture up a fun one. The boats will need to be prepared for winter storage.

The dinner is held as a ’thank you’ to all our volunteers who give up their time throughout then season. The date is Friday, November 24th. The food is Greek themed and the puds will be supplied by Fay Stanley and her band of happy helpers.