Jackie Gay

My first loves were boats and books and both have been a constant throughout my life. I have been sailing since I was a small child, starting in the traditional British way, in a Mirror built by my dad. However I’ve only recently become involved in paralympic racing. Most of my sailing has been with dad and my brother William around the Solent, Channel Islands and Baltic. In 1994 I lost my left leg in a car accident in Africa and it took me a few years to get back on the water – the accident laid me low for a good while and I feared that sailing would never be the same for me again as a disabled person. Eventually, the call of the sea was too strong and I went on holiday on Dad’s boat, Cloudberry, and on the Jubilee Sailing Trust’s Tall Ship Tenacious. Once I rediscovered my sea leg I couldn’t stay away and started looking for opportunities to sail more often, which I found through RYA Sailability.

In 1994 I lost my left leg in a car accident in Africa and it took me a few years to get back on the water

I crew for Allan Smith, who represented Great Britain in the Athens Paralympics, in the new Skud 18 class, a two-person skiff/keelboat which we only received from the manufacturers in July 2006. Now we are campaigning for Beijing 2008 – a short run-in by anyone’s standards! There is so much to do. After spending summer 2006 learning to sail the boat (we hold the unofficial world record speed: 14 knots) we now have to prepare her and ourselves for an intense programme of international competition. I am very lucky to be sailing with Allan, who has a wealth of racing experience and we have certainly had remarkable success so far – coming 4th (First British team) in the Martin 16 Europeans in April 2006 (my first ever regatta) and 2nd in the Skud 18 Europeans in Weymouth in October 2006. We were racing against serious competition in these events: Greek, Canadian and Swedish paralympians and World Champions, and our success at the Sail for Gold regatta gained me a position on the GBR Squad along with Allan. Sailing is the only sport where paralympic and olympic athletes train together, and we now have access to the world class support programme that the Royal Yachting Assocation (RYA) provides.

If you’re wondering what happened to the books in all this then I do have another life as a novelist and short story writer. I have had two novels published and edited three collections of short stories. I teach Creative Writing at the Birmingham City University, and when I told my boss about the Beijing campaign (testing the water for time off from work) he said, ‘well, I’ve been asked for time off for writing, or research, or to attend literature conferences, but never for paralympic sailing.’ Let’s hope there’s a first time for everything.

And is sailing ‘the same’ as a disabled person? No; nothing is the same – any person who has become disabled will confirm that. I can’t leap on and off boats, I can’t hike out (although I’m tempted to try on the Skud – one-legged, which might make for some interesting tacking). I can’t stand up to hoist the spinnaker like the 49er guys do (‘you do that sitting down?’ was one incredulous comment). But I can race hard and fast at the highest level. I can use my experience and knowledge to make sound decisions. I can make full use of my upper-body fitness – the crew’s position on the Skud is seriously athletic. I can helm a tall ship across the Bay of Biscay and navigate a yacht through the tricky channels of the Stockholm archipelago. I am happiest where I’ve always been happiest; out on the water, slicing through the waves (with a good book tucked away for later on). And now there is a new destination: Sailing for Gold.