ACF Summer Update – 5th August 2024
At the conclusion of the 2023-4 season three Andrew Cassell Foudnation boats entered Cowes Week 2024. The culmination of the Foundation’s whole year training pattern, the commitment of our participants and volunteers and increased local participation resulted in our sailors and shore crew acquitting themselves extremely well. The Sonar fleet this year included 14 boats. ACF Dolphin had the objective of sailing hard and performing well with a crew including people with visual impairment and autism. Skippered by Matt, the ACF Director they achieved a podium placement of 3rd in class. Our other two boats had the objective of safe sailing and learning about participating in a major multi class regatta. Crewed by disabled people including people with brain injury and very recent amputations they achieved extremely creditable placement in 7th and 10th.
Cowes Week Racing Report
ACF Dolphin was crewed throughout by one of our autistic participants. On five days they were joined by a visually impaired participant who also has hearing problems who handles the mainsheet, and on the remaining two days by another visually impaired participant. The ACF Director skippered and a core volunteer participated. Despite best efforts, integrated crew training had been limited for Dolphin this year, and initial racing was a bit hampered that lack of crew integration. None the less with there team sailing experience, they achieved one first and three seconds in the series. After discards a single point was all that separated the first three boats in the class.
ACF Limbitless had two of our new participants with amputations, and was skippered by Laurence, an extremely experienced sailor who is himself an amputee. They were accompanied by one abled bodied volunteer. The amputee crew had both lost limbs in the last 18 months and their consensus hope was to have a great time and get round the course. This was for them very much an introduction to the completion and a demonstration of what they could already achieve and what the future could hold. They scored consistently in the middle of the fleet ending up placed seventh and also managed a third place in one race.
ACF Spare Part was in a similar situation to ACF Limbitless with 2 new sailors to our team. Both had limited previous sailing experience, one lives with a traumatic brain injury and the other with a visual impairment. This Team was skippered by Mark Matthews who was now on his 4th Cowes Week with us in the same boat and is one of the calmest and friendliest skippers around. He also had one volunteer crew each day, who rotated in and out sharing duties crewing our support rib. Their scoring was a bit mixed with three sevens or eights but they had a fantastic and safe sail and ended up placed 10th.
Always a multi disability adventure
The Andrew Cassell Foundation is focused on maximising independence on the water for disabled participants. We are rare in that we are open to applications from people with every type of disability, and its very usual for our boats to be crewed by people with a mix of disabilities.
Each year brings challenges and joys in working new people into our sailing family, discovering their skills and challenges and knitting together effective sailing teams who can sail well, racing with and against abled crews. This year we have been joined by many people with amputations a very broad classification with a huge range of resulting disability, people with congenital skeletal and brain injury, some folk who have received traumatic brain injury, as well as having returning participants with visual impairments and autism.
Our aim is always to help participants grow at their own pace, and to develop their hopes and skills in a sustainable way. While we are always available to offer one of sailing trials, our hope and intention is that sailors return over the year, and indeed years, to develop and perfect their on water skills. We know the Foundation is successful when our participants gain the skills to come off the water buzzing and demanding more.
Whole year training brings results
ACF seasons run from September to August – roughly from Cowes Week to Cowes Week, and this year has included some of the most lovely and determined disabled people the charity has ever worked with. They have developed sailing and personal skills far beyond their dreams and all of them acquitted themselves extremely well.
Our sailing is based on performance and racing, but we always have time for fun on and off the water. We love the friendships, and supportive community which grow around our participants as they sail with us. This growth of community among volunteers and participants is a powerful motivator for some of our disabled participants. This is because it counters the isolation in other parts of their lives which is a common associate of becoming disabled.
The Foundation trains every other weekend. We find this is key for participants – especially for those who have energy limiting conditions or who have to travel to the Island. This two weekly schedule offers the opportunity for our disabled participants to introduce a sport and exercise to their lives in a way which does not entirely take over the rest of their commitments. We find that our through the winter training, sailing whenever the conditions for our crews are safe and shore training when they are not, builds resolve and skills in a way which yields results every summer.
New year this Foudnation we have started a Friday afternoon club as a way for participants to try out the Foundation and have a low key way to explore participating in our main programme. These sessions may or may not include time on the water but always include some development work and social bonding. This programme was a key part of developing informal links with the IOW NHS.
Nothing without our volunteers
This year like every other, depended on the participation of our volunteers who are core to carrying our ethos forward from year to year as well as helping things run smoothly on shore and safely on the water.
During Cowes Week this year we have had a dedicated shore team led by Liz. They all performed brilliantly we’d love to replicate this innovation next year because it reduces stress for participants during launch and recovery – strangely often the most stressful parts of the racing day.
This year we have been operating the Foundation’s own RIB on the water every session rather than at times relying on fleet cover or borrowing boats. This increases our safety and the reliability with which we can plan sessions. However it has increased our volunteer load, and we are grateful for the response we have had. This Cowes Week we were extremely grateful to Mark Young, who with his experienced managed the safety ont he water keeping a close eye on the teams at all times.
Increasing disability participation in the local area
Word of mouth has been a powerful recruiting method by which new disabled people have joined us this season. This is important, because our charity base is in Cowes on the Isle of Wight and in addition to areas of extreme wealth, there is substantial deprivation in our area and associated high levels of disability. The charity has always been concerned about offering opportunities to disabled people on the island and we are delighted to see our engagement with Wight Aid, local clinics and services bear fruit in increasing numbers of Island participants.
