Bert Francis – Life Member (2018) This photograph shows Bert Francis (one of our long-serving volunteers at SailabilityGC and a long-time skipper of our support boats) at the wheel of a tourist boat on Lake Lucerne in Switzerland. Bert, together with his partner Lee, was visiting Switzerland a few years back when he decided to have a chat with the Captain of the tourist boat. Bert does love a chat and no more so than to chat about boats. Upon Bert sharing his experience of many years with both Sailability and the Coast Guard on the Gold Coast the Captain of the tourist boat had no hesitation in passing the wheel over to Bert and even loaned Bert his captain’s hat. Some say that apart from his partner [...]

Wyn Treasure – a mainstay of Sailability Gold Coast Twenty years ago, Wyn Treasure of Southport Yacht Club (SYC) became aware that two doctors were seeking a sailing activity for a client with a disability, Cathy Post.  Dr David Straton told Cathy of a sailing dinghy which might help to realise her dream of overcoming her disability and sailing independently.  Doctors Straton and Sivyer of the Gold Coast Care for Children Fund had acquired an Access 2.3m dinghy and donated it to the Cerebral Palsy League.  ‘Accessability’ was chosen as the name for the donated dinghy. This seemingly benign set of circumstances proved to be the genesis of Sailability in QLD creating the first Sailability club in QLD – Sailability Gold Coast. Cathy Post, together with a woman [...]

InSYnC article 2013-2014 The following page, linked below, is from the summer (2013-2014) edition of Southport Yacht Clubs’ InSYnC magazine. The Sailability column refers to the passing of Wyn Treasure who many consider the real force in establishing Sailability Gold Coast and Sailability Queensland. The InSYnC article 2013-2014 Back to News

Kevin’s Journey Kevin Garcia is one of the longest serving SailabilityGC volunteers still at the workface at Hollywell today. Some 30 years ago with a career well advanced with Telstra, Kevin contracted Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and was forced to retire early on a disability pension. But this interruption was not the first to have a major impact on the journey that has been Kevin’s life to date.  In an age of conscription (which many of the current Sailability volunteers will recall – some vividly) Kevin’s number was drawn, and he found himself in the Australian Army Signals Corp and in Vietnam where he spent almost 12 months of his life. Picking up from where he left off before national service duty, he resumed his career in electrics and [...]

Talk to the President You should have my email address (president@sailabilitygc.org) and telephone number (0427 026 001) and use them. Please let me know what ideas you might have and what suggestions you would like to put forward be it regarding processes, social events, boats, rosters, clients,  volunteer training or any other thing that might be relevant to who and what we are and what it is that we do. I am part of a team of volunteers that make up the Sailability Gold Coast committee and we will consider, discuss and implement where we can. Back to News

President’s Column The first edition of Freedom News for this year was despatched just a few days before Australia Day and we had achieved a strike rate of 50% in terms of Tuesday sailing days. Here we are with 10 weeks of the ‘2020 sailing year’ behind us and our strike rate is at 50% in terms of sailing days. Fate deals a hand to each of us every day of our lives and it’s how we play that hand every day that becomes the narrative for our life. You will read about some of those hands and how they were dealt with in this newsletter and a couple more in the new web site released this week. I hope, like me you are inspired to deal with [...]

Celebrate Australia Day with Sailability Gold Coast at SYC Hollywell. A perfect opportunity to catch up with your ‘Sailability Family’ 12 noon ‘til 3pm lunch and drinks at club prices bring your family & friends … all welcome take them all for a tour on ‘Freedom’ dress to impress in your Aussie gear! Your own beach on the busiest day of the year on the Broadwater … play in the sand … have a swim or just kick back with a coldie. Name and numbers to the office TODAY please. Back to News

In the first week of the year SYC hosted the Bartercard Sail Paradise Regatta and we had a number of volunteers involved. Thanks to Peter Board for bouncing around for four days on a support boat RIB. I feel your pain Pete and well done. Thanks also to Gi (you remember our Whale Boat skipper volunteer), Soren and Ronnie who crewed on Pole Dancer – winner of the Cruising Division – awesome job! In the Trailable Division Queensland Para Sailing Academy entered four SKUD’s crewed by Ross & Max, Neil & Jack, Ben & Damien and Mike (aka Grumpy Old Man) and Pete (does all the work apparently. Congratulations to Ros & Max on winning the trailable division. Well done to all and great to see Sailability Gold Coast [...]

Photo courtesy of Spraytech Marine Over the Christmas New Year period one of our yachts was completely stripped, sanded, repaired, ground, shaped, painted, polished and sign painted. Over the first couple of weeks of this year an enthusiastic and committed group of volunteers that had stripped Spirit put it all back together again. What a beautiful job! Sincere thanks to Greg, Hubert, Paul, Ross, John Sims, Peter, Mike and Gary. And a special thanks to Bob Ogle and his committee for having the foresight last year to organise to get the job done. Back to News