Sailability for London offers a 5-days Day Skipper/Competent Crew Practical Course for the deaf people, which is believed to be the first kind of its course. It is part of RYA Sailability’s UK-wide approach to make this course more accessible by offering a BSL interpreter to assist the teaching and the communication between the tutor and the participants.

Competent Crew - An introduction to living and sailing aboard a yacht. For those with little or no cruising experience. This course teaches all the essential skills needed to be a useful crew member, whilst introducing people to the joys of cruising.

Day Skipper - This is aimed at people who have some sailing experience and have done the Day Skipper theory course or have equivalent knowledge. The course concentrates on the skills needed to safely skipper a yacht; passage planning navigation, pilotage, boat handling, meteorology and seamanship.

Price per person is £450. The cost includes the instructor, boat, marina fees, diesel, gas, food on board and waterproofs. It excludes meals/drinks ashore.  A BSL interpreter will be onboard for the entire course and her fee will be covered by RYA Sailability (RYAS).

Please browse the RYAS poster or contact RYA Sailability Regional Development Office for London, Jo Mawby at jo.mawby@rya.org.uk for all enquires. Also please browse Sailability for London on the Royal Yachting Association website for more RYA Sailability information.

It is noted that if you feel you can offer your help as a volunteer, club or centre, donor or sailor, to provide more opportunities for deaf people to take part in sailing, please let Jo Mawby know.

The Sussex Yacht Club is organising a RYA Dinghy Level 1 course on the weekend of 16th - 17th September at Shoreham-by-Sea for deaf people and hard of hearing for the second year running. A qualified deaf dinghy instructor will teach a group of 8 people in either oral or sign language with a resident senior instructor and 5 deaf assistant instructors. A qualified BSL/SSE communicator will also be present throughout the 2 day course.

If interested, please book through the dinghy section without delay to ensure your place there or contact RYA Instructor, Simon Terry, on zenium07@talktalk.net to query on any aspect of the course.

For the course details, please browse the dinghy section

Gerry Hughes and his crew arrived at Troon, near Ayr, Scotland on the 23rd day of their transatlantic passage.

Their time was surprisingly very close to the passage record set by the previous owner, but if they had not encountered several days of little or no wind during their passage, as they actually did, they would have broken the record remarkably.

The crew was emotionally greeted by a huge number of families and friends both in the flotilla and at the moment they stepped out of their yacht "Quest II" on the marina platoon. I was told by the harbourmaster to control the crowd on the platoon but obviously I lost the control! They marked off the celebration with them at the Troon Yacht Club into the evening, and Gerry flew off with her proud family to Tenerife on the following morning!

Andrew Taylor
Deaf Sailing UK

Gerry Hughes returned to Newport Yacht Club, Rhodes Island, USA on 30th June 2006 to meet up with two mates, Jeff McWhinney and Mark Roberston, where they prepared his yacht, Quest II, for the home voyage. It was the site where he moored up the Quest II last year following his successful completion in the OSTAR 2005 (Original Single-handed Transatlantic Race) in which he won the " Spirit of Corinthain" award from the race organiser, Royal Western Yacht Club, in recognition of his determination, endurance bravery and seamanship throughout the race. Gerry was the only deaf skipper in the Race.

For their sailing progress, please see the website at www.gerrysmhughes.com or visit the Royal Western Yacht Club of England website at www.rwyc.org for the race details.

It has recently came to our notice and rather regrettably, the announcement was made on our former website at www.deafsailing.org.uk without permission from us that the DSUK Club is being dissolved.

This is simply not true since we continue to run in most aspects of the sailing activities and London Sailing Project (also known as Rona Sailing Project) has not acknowledged nor accepted any cooperation with the author.

If you have any concern about this, please contact Mike on mike.aston@dsuk.org.uk

Dee Caffari crossed the finished line off the Lizard lighthouse in Cornwall on 18th May and arrived Southampton on 20th May, aboard her modified 72ft BT Challenge yacht She became the first female in history to sail against the prevailing winds and currents round the world non-stop in 178 days.

Dee was the skipper of "Imagine it. Done" yacht in which Abigail Shoebridge crewed the first leg of the BT Global Challenge 2004-2005 Race. Abigail was the only deaf crew member in the Race, and she was forced to retire at the end of the leg due to physical injury.

For the event details, please browse the Unisys and EMC website at www.app3.unisys.com

Deaf Sailing UK and Sussex Yacht Club visits the Datchet Open Sailing Club on Saturday 18th March 2006, where the SYC instructors, BSL communicator and 5 deaf assistant instructors will be practicing there as part of the Assistant Dinghy Sailing Instructor course in the run up to the RYA dinghy course in April.

For the venue details, please see the dinghy section

I am now pleased to advise you that 3 new deaf voyages for this 2006 season are now available on the cruise section of this website

If interested, please book through the cruise section without delay to avoid disappointment or contact Mike Aston on mike.aston@dsuk.org.uk to query on any aspect of the voyages.

Mike Aston
Deaf Sailing UK PR & Events Co-ordinator