Mobility Cup athletes sail to freedom

If you’re looking for portraits of courage, they are everywhere on Hamilton’s waterfront this week, as disabled sailors tackle the harbour’s wind and rain.

Not only that, there’s the telling tableau of empty wheelchairs lined up by the docks and YouTube moments such as Rocky the companion dog racing to the docks to greet his owner.

About 60 disabled athletes from five countries are competing in four categories this week in the 2011 Rotary Mobility Cup, the 21^st edition of the Canadian regatta.

“It’s still scary after 10 years getting that low down in the water when you can’t swim,” says Hamilton’s Helen Dam of the leap of faith from wheelchair to boat. She’s competing in the Gold Fleet for the Royal Hamilton Yacht Club, which is co-hosting the event with the Burlington Sailing & Boating Club.

The 19-year-old McMaster student, who has hereditary spastic paraplegia, has achieved the highest level of sailing accreditation you can get in Canada.

Still, she is in awe of the sailors with even greater challenges, such as the three quadriplegic athletes who use Canadian-conceived “sip-and-puff” technology. These sailors use lung power and a tube to control their craft.

And she praises the volunteer effort – about 200 people make it possible to house, transport, feed and get the sailors in and out of boats.

Cup volunteer coordinator Marilyn Baxter says Hamiltonians responded magnificently.

“They have been fabulous, with about half from the two clubs and other local people plus people from as far away as Winnipeg.”

Jenny McEwen-Hill is a key cog in the apparatus, a physiotherapist with children’s hospital services at Chedoke Hospital who helps supervise the docks, getting people in place for the swift transition from boat to wheelchair at the conclusion of a race.

Part of that process is the Jenny, a special hoist developed by Len Verhey of Canway Equipment Manufacturing of Hamilton. He designed it so it could lift disabled sailors safely to the docks.

“He said he couldn’t just give it a model number, it needed a name and it should be Jenny,” McEwen-Hill says.

The event’s major sponsor, Fox40, needed about 10 seconds to decide it was the right thing to do, says owner Ron Foxcroft.

“I’ve refereed (basketball) in the Olympics and been at those opening ceremonies, but I found this even more emotional,” he says of the Cup.

Honourary chair of the event, storied international sailor Don Green, admits he was a bit skeptical when the idea of disabled sailing was introduced to him.

“These sailors are just so impressive and fiercely independent. It has been wonderful to watch them compete.”

Oakville’s Glachan, who has Multiple Sclerosis, says the challenges of life on land melt away on the water – gone with the wind, so to speak.

“You are in control out there.  I just love it.”

He has finished well down the standings but noted you can’t put a number on joy.

He and other sailors are building on the 20 previous Mobility Cups and helping part the waves for future competitors, points out 2011 Mobility Cup co-chair and Rotarian Bob Wercholoz.

 “Every Mobility Cup must produce a legacy and this Cup will leave floating docks,” he says. “After the competition, some of the floating docks will be moved from the Royal Hamilton Yacht Club to the Burlington Sailing and Boating Club.”

He says those docks will be the key to further development of the Hamilton ad Burlington clubs’ Able Sail programs.

The $70,000 price tag for the docks was met through a $47,000 grant from the Ontario Ministry of Health Promotion, significant fundraising by Burlington’s Rotary Clubs and other Rotary donations from across the Golden Horseshoe, pushing the total beyond $70,000.

Wercholoz says any profit made from the Mobility Cup would be divided equally between the two clubs for future development.

“It could be to supply more coach boats or sails or whatever is needed for the programs.”

He notes more resources are needed because sailing is arguably the fastest growing sport for disabled athletes.

Wercholoz explains why it draws so many people to Able Sail programs.

“We had one new member who went out on the water for the first time and came back with this huge smile on his face. He said it was because when he looked back at shore he saw an empty wheelchair sitting on the dock. That’s why our theme is ‘Freedom and Possibility’.”

Paula Stone of Association Quebecoise de Voile Adaptée in Montreal, an occupational therapist who is supervising the docks at her ninth Mobility Cup, says that is a story repeated across the country.

“I remember one woman in our club who was very reluctant to go out on the water. When she came back for her second sail she had a new lifejacket.

“Someone said ‘nice lifejacket’. She said ‘it’s more than that. It’s a new life’.”