Paralympic Sailing

Sport Summary:

The Atlanta 1996 Paralympic Games introduced Sailing as a demonstration sport, leading to its acceptance as a full medal sport at the Sydney 2000 Paralympics.

This sport is open to athletes with an amputation, cerebral palsy, blindness / visual impairment, spinal injuries and les autres.

The objective in sailing is to navigate a set course in a faster time than your opponents.

Athletes compete in three events, which are non-gender specific:

The Single-Person and Three-Person Keelboats are open to most disability groups, while the Two-Person Keelboat event is specifically designed for athletes with a severe disability.

Paralympic Events being contested at Beijing 2008:

  • Single-Person Keelboat (2.4mR).
  • Two-Person Keelboat (SKUD18).
  • Three-Person Keelboat (Sonar).

Click here to view the nomination criteria for the 2008 Paralympic Team in pdf.

Rules & Equipment:

International 2.4mR:

2.4mR boats are single-handed keelboats and are designed under the same rule as the 12m America's Cup boats.

They are 4.1m long and weigh 260kg.  Their design allows the helm to sit amidships holding all the instruments for controlling the boat craft and navigating, at a distance roughly equal to that of the arms when outstretched.

SKUD18:

For Paralympic competition the SKUD18 will be a strict one design class with two sailors seated on the centreline.

The SKUD18 is 5.8m in length and weighs 380kgs.

This boat has been designed from a performance basis, to offer scintillating, crisp and snappy response to sailors regardless of their ability/mobility.

Sonar:

The Sonar class has a crew of three, a fixed keel, a length of 7m (23 feet), and a weight of 950kg. Sonar has three sails - main sail, jib, and spinnaker, but when used for Paralympics the crew just uses the mainsail and jib.

The Sonar provides the option of sailing together with a crew of various disabilities and, because of its size and flexibility, allows many different adaptive aids to be incorporated into the boats to assist those sailors with more severe disabilities.

Sail Identification:

All boats shall carry on each side of its mainsail and on each side of the hull the country code denoting its national authority. Country codes will be applied at Measurement. No other sail numbers shall be displayed.

Classification:

A scoring system that assigns points based on level of ability allows athletes from different disability groups to compete together in this Paralympic sport.

After the evaluation of athletes with a functional disability by the Classification Committee, they are awarded points, based on their functional abilities, ranging from one to seven, standing for the lowest and the highest level of functionality, respectively.

Athletes with a visual impairment are placed into one of three competition classes, based on their visual acuity and field of vision.

To ensure the participation of athletes with all point counts and from all classes of disability, there is a maximum point count, which a crew of three persons must not exceed: the aggregate of its members' points must not be over 14. This enables sailors with a more severe physical disability to compete in Paralympic Sailing.

Click here for a more detailed explanation of sailing classification.

Links: