Issue date
Previously the IACA Committee Liberty Class Representative, New Zealander Brendan Tourelle has taken on the role of President from the 2012 Annual General Meeting. He is a keen competitor and active volunteer. Brendan was the highest placed Kiwi in the Liberty fleet at the 2012 Worlds in Sydney, and he is the 2012 NZ Access Liberty National Champion.
He tells us a little about his background……..
From an early age one way or another I have been connected to water. My father was a swimming instructor, so swimming was a big part of my childhood - which led to surfing, scuba-diving, fishing and boating of all kinds. It wasn't until I broke my back in 1999 that I seriously took to sailing. It was a means of finding a way to reconnect with the sea.
I was introduced to Sailability Auckland early in 2000 and found what I was looking for. In those days Sailability Auckland was relatively small with just 4 Access 2.3s. Soon after we got a couple of old Mini 12's, and then two 2.4mRs and we had maybe 4-6 weekly sailors. In 2006 I was elected Chairperson as I remain today. I think our big growth came from hosting the first Kiwi Cup which was the 2009 Liberty World Championship. We knew we needed more boats and a major fundraising was launched, so we ended up with 8 New Liberties. The Kiwi Cup also led to raising our profile, which brought more people wanting to learn to sail.
Now Sailability Auckland has about 20 boats including SKUDs, Liberties, 303s, 2.3s (and the odd 2.4mR) and we are averaging about 1000 sailing sessions a year.
I also instruct beginners in our Virtual Sailing Simulator which is based at the Auckland Spinal Unit. Since 2009 the simulator technology has introduced about 30 people to the world of sailing. The beauty of a simulator is it allows even very highly disabled people to learn the basic skills of sailing in a very safe environment - from there it’s an easy step to sailing on the water.
As much as time allowed, I recently trained with our Paralympic SKUD 18 Team Tim Dempsey and Jan Apel in their big push to the London Paralympics. Few people know that Jan started her sailing life with the sailing simulator. At present I am proud to be the 2012 NZ Access Liberty National champ. I have been on the NZACA Committee from its foundation and am a member of the Yachting NZ Committee for Sailors with Disabilities, where one of the aims is to develop more regional Sailability programs in New Zealand.
