By Jenel Hunt
Having been a keen sailor in his spare time for more than 40 years, Warwick man Glenn Miller is now wheelchair bound because of Multiple Sclerosis.
He will almost certainly never again skipper his beloved 14ft catamaran, which he still keeps in Sydney where he once used to sail. But Glenn, 60, hasn’t allowed his diagnosis to scupper his plans to keep sailing in his life – and in the future of disabled local people as well, for he believes they will benefit from the fresh air, the fun and the skills that go with the grand pastime.
“There is a group called Sailability and they have boats all over the world. It’s an organisation to help people with disabilities to get out onto the water,” said Glenn.
Sailability is a non-profit organisastion run entirely by volunteer members. The goal of the group worldwide is to give people with disabilities an opportunity to achieve a sense of freedom and accomplishment through sailing.
Australia has a big Sailability contingent, with many clubs operating along Australia’s eastern coastline between Sydney and Mackay. The nearest club to Warwick is in Toowoomba and meets at Cooby Dam.
Sailability promotes its ability to make it possible for people of varying levels of ability to learn a little – or a lot – about the skills of sailing.
Glenn’s hope is to have a Sailability in Warwick to enrich the lives of people for whom there are not always many chances for these kinds of activities.
“There are so many people in the Warwick district with some kind of disability, it’s incredible. When you add in the rest of the region and Inglewood and Goondiwindi, there are so many people we could reach,” he said.
“People could come and stay at Leslie Dam, camp overnight and come sailing in the morning.”
Glenn is a carpenter and joiner by trade and had his own kitchen company in Penrith. After moving to Queensland when his health got to the stage where he couldn’t work full time in his trade, he was offered a position in Killarney to help teach a woodwork class at school … then in Warwick and finally at The Hub. All up, he spent seven years teaching woodworking and enjoyed it all.
He remembers learning to sail on Lake Jindabyne on the edge of the Snowy Mountains. It seems there has never been a time when he did not love sailing. He has been to Runaway Bay and Southport clubs to go out on Sailability craft himself, and relishes the opportunity to get back out on the water.
Each little craft is built for seated sailing. There’s always an instructor in the boat with the sailor.
“The little skip is fully sailable for two people. You’re sitting down to sail, but there’s so much to learn. You can teach young people the way the wind blows, how the sail has to be. And being out on the water is such a great feeling.”
So passionate is Glenn and a couple of others that an incorporated association has already been set up. At the moment Sailability Leslie Dam has a president (Glenn), secretary, treasurer … and a vision. To move that vision from dream status to reality will require sponsors, volunteers and sailors.
It’s a big dream. Just to get started would cost about $50,000.
“We’d need a couple of boats to start with, a lifter to get a person from wheelchair to boat, a portable pontoon, life jackets and a container to keep it all,” Glenn said.
“The Warwick Yacht Club is very supportive of the whole thing and in conjunction with them we are putting in an application to put up a storage facility near the dam for the boats and equipment when we get them.
“We haven’t started looking for money yet but I will be approaching sponsors.
“Warwick needs this. You can have a disability and still be a sailor.”
