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 [...]

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 [...]

  Great organisations are made great because they are made up of great people.  While the volunteers at Sailability Gold Coast make it a great organisation there are a few that have dedicated years to crafting its 20-year heritage.  One of these people is Stan Phillips.   Stan joined Sailability Gold Coast at a time when the organisation was in its infancy.  He, together with his late wife Margaret, offered a lifetime of boating experience especially in sailing.   Naturally at that time Sailability had little in the way of sailing dinghies or procedural documentation to guide volunteers in taking people with disabilities onto the water. Stan produced the first Sailability Gold Coast Manual of Procedures which, with some minor updates, is still in use today.   Stan was very active from [...]