Marine services in Murrays Beach

Sailing club

Sailability NSW is less a single clubhouse than a statewide promise: that a disability should be no barrier to getting afloat. Operating through a network of roughly 25 to 27 branches — the largest state-based inclusive sailing organisation in Australia — it puts people of every age and level of disability into boats on inland lakes, estuaries and ocean water, entirely through volunteer labour. The twin phrases attached to the organisation, "Freedom on the Water" and "Changing lives one sail at a time", turn out to be literal. Sailors who use wheelchairs are winched by crane into stable Hansa dinghies; a servo-assisted joystick or electric switch replaces sheets and tiller where grip or movement is limited; and one Sydney sailor made history in 2000 by sailing solo on the harbour as the world's first ventilated quadriplegic to do so. The range of what happens at a branch is wide. A typical morning might pair a child from a local school with an experienced skipper one-on-one, host a group from a disability service provider, and run race practice for a competitor bound for the Hansa national titles — sometimes all at once. Participants arrive from schools, aged care and disability s