Our Sailing programme

Our Sailing Programme

We provide sailing opportunities for school-age children through to seniors who live with physical, cognitive or sensory challenges.

We're all about fostering joy and ability, and many of our sailors return season after season to experience the special freedom that sailing brings - and to shine with more Sailability Smiles!

Our sailing schedule consists of one day a week on alternate Tuesdays and Thursdays during the summer, and one day a fortnight over winter. Each sailing day consists of 3 one hour sailing sessions held at 11am, 12midday, and 1:30pm, and our registered sailors only pay $100 for the year.

We offer a few options for our sailors depending on their ability: A) Pleasure Sailing - with a fun ride in a sailboat, B) Learn to Sail - with an opportunity to learn some sailing skills, and C) Particiaption in 'special' sailing events.

Sailing for Pleasure

We have many sailors with conditions that severely limit their cognitive ability or physical mobility, so a ride in a sailboat can be both therapeutic and joyful.

With a skilled skipper in control they get a special experience of inclusion, freedom and joy out on our beautiful harbour.

We have hoists to safely lift sailors in and out of the 2-person sail boats if needed, and our dock crew and skippers are very skilled, kind and encouraging.

If you are in a wheelchair, please take note: we are not allowed electric wheelchairs on the dock, so you will need to come with a manual chair to comply with Health and Safety requirements. Thanks.

Learn to Sail

For those who want to achieve some sailing skills, they can learn to co-pilot with their skipper. They may learn to steer the boat with the simple-to-use joystick, or trim the sails with our easy pulley system. ​

Some of our sailors are eventually able to sail solo, shadowed closely by our support boats if they happen to need assistance.

To accomplish even the smallest sailing task can bring a great sense of achievement and boost to confidence - along with more beautiful Sailability smiles!

Special Sailing Days

Destination Sail Days - A couple of times a term we try to schedule a special destination sail and have a picnic. Sailing over to Matakana Island or Hunter's Creek are favourite spots to sail to.

Keeler Sail Days - Once a year we invite local owners of larger yachts to come along for a Keeler Sail Day. This gives our regular sailors and their caregivers the thrill of sailing on a larger vessel. A real treat that everyone enjoys. 

Racing

For competent sailors, there are opportunities to learn racing skills, with some sailors go on to compete at club level, nationally and even internationally.

The Hansa Class boats are  international open-class boats sailed all over the world by thousands of people with and without disabilities, making Hansa sailing a truly inclusive class.