The Channel Challenge is Hilary Lister's attempt to become the first quadriplegic to sail, single-handed, across the English Channel.
Visit Hilary Lister's website
Hilary started sailing in 2003, and was immediately hooked. In 2004 she began to dream of crossing the English Channel single-handed and, at the end of August, she proposes to do just that.
Hilary has a progressive disorder which has left her only able to move her head. She spends all the time when she is not sailing either in a wheelchair, or in bed.
Until Hilary was introduced to sailing by a neighbour, she was completely housebound. Hilary had been extremely active all her life. As a paraplegic she swam and worked out in the gym several times a week. Having lost the use of her arms she could no longer drive, or continue her work as a biochemist. Her new lifestyle as a quadriplegic seemed to be worthless.
When she says "sailing saved my life", she means it.
Our role is to encourange and support people with disabilities to take up the sport of sailng and other boating activities and facilitate their integration into the boating community.
The European Tall Ships' Race visits Waterford in Ireland this year and The Jubilee Sailing Trust's (JST) tall ship TENACIOUS will be taking part in this illustrious set of races for the first time. During the Waterford to Cherbourg leg of the race the JST will be playing host to four members of the Irish Charity Fighting Blindness.
Bids now invited from Universities and other institutions - Universities and other institutions with credentials in behaviour and attitude research among young people in an adventure environment are being invited to submit proposals for a major worldwide project to measure the impact of the sail training experience. The invitation is from Sail Training International who plan to make the research the centre-piece of their celebrations next year of the 50th anniversary of the first ever race for sail training Tall Ships in 1956.
We financially support disabled sailing groups throughout the UK, and provide on shore training, information and advice. The words Sail and ability are synonymous with providing the opportunity for people with disabilities to go sailing. However, just as there are many types of disability, we aim to ensure that all types of boating experience are open to all. This could be cruising and dinghy sailing, power boats and windsurfing, using marinas, or boating on a local gravel pit. Many of the questions and issues raised about boating are the same whether it is from a disabled or able bodied sailor and any one of the RYA departments should be able to deal with enquiries specific to their area of boating. These links are on the left hand navigation options.
The JST has turned me back into a person and lifted the title 'disabled' that has been hanging over me for some 12 years. The JST has helped rebuild my life. It is such a shame that it can't be put on prescription as I know I am just one of the people that the JST has helped.
Many critics of modern society's treatment of people with disabilities fault the institutional culture that surrounds them with paid staff whose work fails to empower and creates passivity.
Archived news in 'Disabled Sailing & Sail Training'
2005
2004
