Galway Bay Sailing Club has embarked on a project with a difference: teaching people in wheelchairs to sail. 

A number of months ago, the club secured funding from the Department of Arts, Sports and Tourism to purchase a ‘Challenger’ multi-hulled dinghy, which is specially designed with disabled people in mind.

So far the club has only one disabled sailor (Gary Allen, featured in this week’s ‘Me and the Sea’) but they hope to attract many more, and there are plans to apply for funding for a further dinghy in order to increase capacity, as about seven people could be trained on a single boat.

The project is being spearheaded by PJ Mealy, who had previously renovated another boat for Gary’s use, along with Chris Law and Steve Comerford. Paul Rush, Colm Moriarty, Dermot Tynan and Aine Nolan put together the grant application, while Richard Hayes taught Gary to sail. They hope to apply for another Challenger in the next round of Sports Capital Grants funding.

According to Dermot Tynan, Commodore of Galway Bay Sailing Club, the club has put everything in place to make sure this project is a success. What they now need are “so-called disabled people to come sailing and find out that when you put on a wetsuit and climb aboard a single-handed boat such as the Challenger, there is no disability,” he said.

Richard Hayes, the club’s senior sailing instructor will be in charge of teaching other disabled sailors to sail.

The triple-hulled dinghy, which is sailed by one person, has a seat and all the controls are available at the sailor’s fingertips, unlike in a conventional dinghy where a sailor is required to move around the boat to adjust sails. The seat can be adjusted to accommodate anyone, and the triple hull means that the boat is safer and more stable than a single-hulled dinghy. As the sails are controlled by pulleys, even people with limited upper body strength will be able to sail it.

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