Seven nations are set to participate in the first Paralympic Development Program clinic in Weymouth and Portland, Great Britain from 17-21 August 2015.
Sailors and coaches from the Czech Republic, China, Estonia, Hong Kong, Portugal, South Africa and Singapore will all make their way to the venue of the London 2012 Olympic Sailing Competition for the five day clinic.
Led by Betsy Alison, US Sailing Paralympic Coach and Chair of the Disabled Sailing Committee, with support from Matt Grier, Royal Yachting Association Paralympic Development Coach and Jacob Haug, a 2.4mR coach the program aims to:
• Support the development of national disabled / Paralympic development programs within ISAF Member National Authorities (MNAs);
• Increase attendance by nations at events using Paralympic classes of equipment i.e Sailing World Cup / Disabled Sailing World Championships / Paralympic Games qualification events;
• Increase the number of classified sailors registered within ISAF member nations;
• Enable ISAF member nations involved in the program to develop sustainable grass roots 'participation' oriented disabled sailing activity to feed 'performance' programs.
Throughout the clinic sailors will benefit from on-water expertise, sailing in the Paralympic one-person keelboat, the 2.4mR, as well as daily on-shore briefings.
Following the clinic, nations will be offered the opportunity to make use of five charter boats supplied by Charger Composites of Finland in Australia for the second clinic that will be held in Melbourne, Australia in advance of the 2015 Disabled Sailing Worlds that is scheduled for 24 November to 3 December.
Costs of attending these events will be heavily subsidised by ISAF.
An outline of the program and information on how to get involved can be found on the ISAF website here -
www.sailing.org/sailors/enp/pdp.
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