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Annual Report 2015

Quinte SailAbility

Accessible                                     Active                                       Affordable

                              Annual Report 2015
Quinte SailAbility is a sailing school for persons with a physical or developmental disability, regardless of age or degree of disability. Founded in 2001 and serving the greater Quinte area, it has grown to be the second largest school of its type in Ontario. It operates out of the CFB Trenton Yacht Club. Its goal is to be accessible, affordable and active. Through the use of technology, barriers are eliminated, providing the therapeutic benefits of sailing on one’s own. Our core product is self esteem and confidence.

 

Overview

Sailing sessions where down in all programs for the first time in many years mainly due to very high winds, reduced number of racers and CANSail participants. Total reduction of sailing sessions was 31%, We had 33 seasonal members down slightly from the 36 in 2014. The out reach programs, camps and therapeutic were down 46% due mostly to weather. On a positive note, we did have 4 new kids join this year which is the hardest target group to attract.

Regardless of the above, it was a good season. The staff performed very well and the problems of last year are behind us. The members had a great and successful sailing season and loved the challenge of the high winds (when they were within our safety limits.) Our biggest challenge for the future will be instructor replacement and that is dealt with in Staff section below.

 

 

Financial

Our operating budget was over spent by $1,415 caused by over spending in maintenance, parts and staff training. We have not been able to accurately estimate maintenance cost for a few years now, probably due to aging equipment. And in this past year, very high winds took their toll on sails. Successful fund raising, asset sales and higher than normal public donations, ($1300 mostly due to a one time legacy donation) negated any financial pressure. Total revenues were $ 30,091, total costs were $ 25.889 plus $3,504 in capital acquisitions produced a net of $698.

 

 

Awards

Sailor of the Year – Cansail- Ben Pelletier

Sailor of the Year – Recreational – Michael Opsteen

Most Improved Sailor Cansail– Ereck Moratowage

Most Improved Sailor – Recreational – Nathan Barrett

John Rymes Award – Rodney Tompkins

The John Gower Award – Kai Freeland

Case Downs Memorial Award- Nathan Barrett

Undaunted Award – The Staff

Youth Volunteer – Michelle Cormier

Volunteer of the Year – George Sandal

 

Operations 

The CL 14 has not been working out as planned as we have yet to be able to convince any members to try it out. We will give it one more season. The Yacht Club’s weed control program was more successful than in 2014 reducing the amount of towing and on some occasions we were able to get back to having members sail into and out of the dock area. Very high winds were both a blessing and a curse. They allowed the instructors to teach high wind sailing successfully, but a few of sails did get blown out, requiring replacement. Two boats, the utility boat and the older Brig coach boat, had to be retired. We have a replacement funding program in place for the Brig and may not replace the utility boat unless funding can be found. We will be developing a plan to standardize rigging by boat type.

 

Sailing Equipment

4   Access 2.3

1   Liberty

4   Martin 16

1 Challenger Trimeran

1 CL14 A non-adaptive boat.

 

Training

We continued as a Cansail Centre, one of only six able sail schools to do so. We had 7 taking the program vs. 9 last year as two members did not return, one due health and the other due to work schedule. This new Sail Canada training program continues to be well liked by staff and members alike. One of our teen volunteers will be taking her PCOC and Radio license this winter and will be more involved next season.

Staff

While the new CANSail sail training program is popular, the new regulations covering sailing instructors is a problem. It increases the certification cost, adds more follow up training and has a negative affect on enrollment, especially in smaller communities such as ours.   We will be looking for a new instructor for next year and have no leads at this time. Four area yacht clubs and ourselves are planning a meeting with Ontario Sailing to address the problem. We are also looking at an instructor sharing program with the Yacht Club, which the Training Officer is now taking to the Flag Officers.

 

Volunteers 

Volunteers continue to be a key component of the success of Quinte SailAbility. We continue to draw upon the expertise and labour of the volunteers who provide boat and facility improvements, maintenance, marketing and dockside safety and assistance.

 

We had sufficient adult volunteers to cover all 10 weeks . Military volunteers continued to provide most of the dock assistant duties. In total 49 volunteers put in 1636 hours, vs. 51 and 1851 hours in 2014. The only problem area is the Saturday therapeutic sailing and we may have to move these to a midweek morning.

 

The teenage volunteers continued to be valuable part of the volunteer program. The teen volunteer program is a major contributor to keeping staff costs down while providing a positive and safe environment for teens. This has also been a good source of new staff.