Hebe Jebes 2015 Issue NOV/DEC | Page 42

SAILABILITY SAILABILITY Inaugural IFDS / INAS Championships—Melbourne The first ever international event for sailors with an Intellectual Disability is to take place in January 2016. We shall be entering a team of four sailors who will be selected nearer the time so I will update you all on this later. 24 Hour—October As usual, we will be entering two teams in the Hansa 303’s. We seem to have accumulated a vast array of toys, DVD’s and bric-a-brac for sale so please visit our stall and line up some early Christmas presents! 2.4mR Class Association This is now in the process of being established. By November, our fleet will have increased to 12 boats. In addition to the six already kept at HHYC, we have purchased three new boats from Finland and three second-hand boats from the UK—the latter six being kept at RHKYC Shelter Cove. It will be a terrific sight to see all 12 in action on the water. A year of sailability Funding highlights 資助一覽 • 我們很高興獲香港體育發展局撥款,資助今年 2.4mR 指導員和 Julian Pearson 的開支。 • The Spirit of Hong Kong We are delighted to say that Foo Yuen Wai won his category ‘Overcoming Personal Challenges’ in this year’s Spirit of Hong Kong Award organised by the South China Morning Post which was presented on 8 October 2015 at the Conrad Hotel Hong Kong. March 2015: Crowd funding Campaign Having been turned down for major event funding elsewhere (appare ntly we should have won a Silver in the Asian Para Games—not just a Bronze!), this event was aimed at raising money for the Open World Championships in Finland (August) and the IFDS Worlds in Melbourne (November). Thanks to the very generous support from all three Yacht clubs, their members and many others­—we raised all the money we needed for Finland with the remaining balance funding our trip towards Melbourne. 2.4mR’s Open World Championships—Rauma Finland A fleet of 102 boats took part in the five-day series of racing. Three of our sailors (Foo Yuen Wai, Lam Kin Wah & Puk Chi Yeung) went along for the experience together with Virgile Bertrand from RHKYC. Our highest finishing position was 62nd—which clearly demonstrates to all that on the world stage 40 HEBE JEBES • NOV/DEC 2015 we have an awful lot to learn about racing in this competitive class—particularly at the start. Although an ‘open’, we later learned that six of the sailors in the top 10 were sailors with a disability, which underlines the value of sailing for everyone and what a great leveller it is as a sport. IFDS Worlds—Melbourne This is a qualifying event for the Paralympics in Brazil. We are entering four sailors (those who went to Finland plus Ms CHO Ping). All we need to do is come in the top seven of the countries who have yet to qualify. An extremely tall order, but as always, we will give it our very best shot. Julian Pearson, a senior level UK Racing Coach, is here in Hong Kong to help our sailors prepare. Wish us well please! Paralympic Development Programme—for developing nations Sailability Hong Kong has been selected for support under this programme. The first clinic was held in Weymouth during August and the next is due to take place in Melbourne just prior to the IFDS Worlds. Operation Santa Claus has once again selected our projects (‘Outreach’ and a new bilingual website) for funding in 2015/16 Operation Santa Claus 再一次選擇我們作為 2015/16年度的資助項目(進行「外展」活動 和雙語網頁)。 • Words Mike A Rawbone, Sailability Committee Chairman Hebe Jebes readers may have noticed the absence of anything from ‘Sailability’ over the past few issues—here is a quick catch up with the highlights from past and present. We have been fortunate to receive some funding from the Hong Kong Sports Development Council towards the cost of our 2.4mR Instructor this year as well as for Julian Pearson. WAGS have a major golfing event planned for November 26th—this being targeted towards the considerable costs involved in sending our team to Melbourne. WAGS 計劃在11月26日舉行大型高爾夫球活 動——這是我們為墨爾本之旅籌募經費的目標 活動。 • Our thanks go to the family of Philip Boothroyd for all the donations made to Sailability in his memory and to GAGS for arranging a golfing tournament last month. 感謝 Philip Boothroyd 的家人對航能的捐獻, 作為對他的紀念。也感謝 GAGS 安排了上月 的高爾夫球賽事。 I would like to give a huge thank you to everyone who make what we do possible—just too many of you to mention. 我在此向所有協助我們實現目標的人士致以衷心感 謝,人數太多,未能盡錄! 41