Anyone can sail: disabled, elderly and poor make most of Sailability and Scallywag coaching programme
- Launched in 2009 by Mike and Kay Rawbone, the Sailability Hong Kong foundation offers diverse groups of people the chance to learn how to sail
- The Sun Hung Kai Scallywag programme is heavily involved in the foundation, providing boats and coaching expertise
A 15-year-old from a single-parent family stepped into a new class of boat for the first time – bigger and faster than he was used to. He raced it against more experienced sailors and finished third, second and first in three races.
A disabled person who had never sailed until late 2013 went on to win a medal at the 2014 Para Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea.
Then there was the woman with muscular dystrophy who was hoisted from her wheelchair on to a sailboat. Within an hour, she was teaching her husband how to sail.
The sailors are all part of the Sailability Hong Kong charity foundation programme at Sai Kung’s Hebe Haven Yacht Club, which has a partnership with Sun Hung Kai Scallywag to give underprivileged and disabled people the opportunity to learn sailing.
“We have sailors with all sorts of disabilities,” said Englishman Mike Rawbone, who with his wife Kay founded Hong Kong’s first Sailability foundation in 2009. “It may be physical – someone who has had polio or may be an amputee – through a whole range of intellectual disabilities.
“We also provide a opportunity for people who are in rehabilitation, typically people who have had bad accidents, a car accident for example, to use sailing as part of their rehabilitation.
