The Volvo ocean race fleet coming to Galway Bay will be accessible to everyone, writes LORNA SIGGINS
WHEN THE Volvo ocean race fleet sails into Galway Bay in the coming days, there will be much talk of true grit, courage and the resilience of the professional sailors circumnavigating the globe.
However, courage is relative – particularly if you are a water enthusiast like Gary Allen. Were it not for the support of his local sailing club, Allen could have become very adept at hurling himself off a pier every time he wanted to get on a boat with his wheelchair.
“Oh, and he would have, if we’d have let him,” quips PJ Mealy, fellow crew member and member of Galway Bay Sailing Club (GBSC). The duo have devised an alternative, less drastic strategy, for ensuring that Allen keeps dry before setting off from the slip.
Allen, originally from Roscommon, uses a wheelchair because of his spina bifida. “I wore callipers and used crutches up to the age of about 12, and after that I was in the chair – never feeling it was an issue because it is all about your attitude.”
He was living in Galway with his wife Linda in 2006 when he heard about a “come and try it” weekend in Kinsale, Co Cork, hosted by the club with the Irish Disabled Sailing Association (ISDA).
“I went down and I loved it, and of course Kinsale’s facilities are such that it is very accessible for people like me,” he says.
Returning north, he met PJ Mealy through a mutual friend. Mealy was more than supportive, and is currently the club’s disabled-sailing co-ordinator.
He told Allen there was no reason why he couldn’t develop his interest in the sport. Ireland’s Amy Kelehan and John Twomey have competed at international and world level in paralympic sailing, and can out-race many of their able-bodied peers at events like the Cork Week regatta. In 2005, Britain’s Hilary Lister was the first quadriplegic to sail solo across the English Channel.
The British Jubilee Sailing Trust has regularly sent its tall ships, equipped for disability sailing, to these waters. There were 12 crew with physical disabilities on board when the trust’s vessel, Tenacious, rescued a French crew in the mid-Atlantic in December, 2006.
Allen and Mealy secured a second-hand Challenger trimaran which had been designed for use by people with disabilities. “We rescued it and spent a winter making it seaworthy, and I started learning to sail the following season,” Allen says.
In 2007, he completed his first level in the Irish Sailing Association’s (ISA) dinghy sailing programme at GBSC in Rinville, Oranmore, along with a full complement of able-bodied trainees. “The club doesn’t have a marina, so we’ve worked out a procedure where I get into the boat while it is still on the trolley on the slipway, and am ‘launched’ from there,” Allen says.
“It’s the reverse procedure on returning to shore, and I have a tow-hitch on my car which allows a driver to pull us back up. It isn’t rocket science, but it does require a positive attitude on the part of clubs and provision of the right facilities.”
The club has acquired a second Challenger and a monohull dinghy, and last year it ran its own “come and try it” weekend for potential sailors who are physically challenged.
As with most sailors, Allen was attracted by the sense of freedom and the total dependence on wind, wave and one’s own skillset. “All you hear are the birds, the sound of wind and water against the hull, and you do leave everything behind you,” he says. He was determined to ensure that others in his position would have such opportunity, which was why he and Mealy began working on the next stage of their plan.
“The Even Keel” is the title for that next stage. During the Volvo ocean race stopover fortnight in Galway, a fleet of custom-built dinghies which can be used by sailors with or without disability will bring beginners out from Galway docks.
The craft used by the Even Keel initiative is the Artemis 20, built of carbon fibre and designed along America’s Cup yacht lines. Forward-facing “canting” seats allow those on board to sail with twin removable joysticks.
Inherent stability means that there is little if no risk of capsizing. “This is very important for people like me who may have balance issues associated with their condition,” Allen explains.
David Rutter spent his early career in the British defence forces and is now the public face of Even Keel, based on the south coast of England. It has charitable, non-profit status, and aims to develop 10 international sailing centres at key locations around the world, where a minimum of six identical Artemis 20 dinghies will be based.
As Rutter explains, the project aims to allow anyone who might not have had an opportunity before this to get on the water regularly. “We’ve earmarked locations where there is an active sailing community to support this, including Galway, and this could be a very positive legacy of the Volvo ocean race there,” he says.
Allied Irish Banks is supporting the Galway “showcase”, and it is hoped to find a permanent sponsor. Discussions are also in place to establish centres in Dubai, UAE, Boston and Miami in the US, Valencia in Spain, and Capetown in South Africa.
“It requires a level of community support and sponsorship which matches corporate social responsibility commitments of companies,” he says. “Our aim is to run a world championship series within the next two years, enabling disabled and disadvantaged sailors from across the globe to compete against each other – on an even keel, so to speak.”
Hilary Lister is on Even Keel’s board of advisers, along with paralympic gold medallist Andy Cassell. As Lister says in her testimonial, sailing is “an escape route from my disability”, and she compares it to “flying”.
Also supporting the initiative is British sailing legend Sir Robin Knox Johnston, who was the first person to circumnavigate the globe non-stop by sail – and who is due in Galway during the Volvo fortnight.
“It takes an iron will and steely determination to contemplate taking on the ocean by oneself,” Knox Johnston says. “But the courage and mental strength required to overcome one’s disability or disadvantage is both liberating for the individual and deeply moving for those who witness it.
“Sailing has the power to allow individuals to achieve their dreams. The Even Keel project provides a welcome opportunity for both able-bodied and disabled people to sail, race and enjoy what is best about our sport: the open air, the majesty of the sea and the freedom to achieve those dreams.”
For information on the Artemis 20 yachts, which will be in Galway from May 24th to June 7th, see www.theevenkeel.com