The Fishbourne Sailability Club (FSC) is associated with the Royal Victoria Yacht Club (RVYC), Wootton Creek, Isle of Wight. All our members realize the tremendous opportunities that we have in having access to their premises, their boat storage facilities, their boats and the many RVYC members who give up time to support our club. All meetings are held at the RVYC.
In essence we provide water-related opportunities for disabled people every Tuesday throughout the sailing season. Wootton Creek is tidal so on Tuesdays, when the tide is against us, we offer some shore-based activities – instruction (boat handling principles, use of VHF radio, navigation, safety etc), lectures, fundraising events and sometimes just a social evening. The Club also has a winter programme.
FSC now owns a 25 ft sailing yacht ‘Moonlight’, a Squib keelboat ‘Curlew’, two Wayfarers and a tender and can use two other Squibs from the RVYC fleet. We also have the use of motor boats, yachts etc kindly provided by RVYC members.
The members of FSC have varying disabilities including missing limbs, learning difficulties, blindness, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, osteoarthritis. In fact the members list covers most disabilities and it has been noted that some members have found their disability improving or have found new skills to compensate for their disability and we look forward to our Club going from strength to strength.
